Power for the People 7/26/24: Climate and Clean Energy Opportunities for Individuals and Municipalities

Producer/Host: Steve Kahl

Power for the People: Energy education and solutions for Mainers and Maine communities

This month:
Overview of the Maine Climate Action Plan ‘Maine Won’t Wait’.
Realities of the impact of climate change on Maine’s economy.
Individual and community opportunities for action and grants.

Guest/s:
Josh Caldwell, NRCM Climate and Clean Energy Outreach Coordinator
[email protected]
nrcm.org

About the host:

Steve Kahl is Professor of Science at Thomas College where he teaches environmental and energy courses and advises the student sustainability club. He writes the monthly ‘Sustainability Minute’ email which is distributed to over 1,200 readers. He is a member of the Quarry Road Recreational Area board of directors where he is advocating for a net-zero energy new welcome center. He has advised the board of WERU on the current plan for the station to become 100% solar powered in 2020. Steve is a member of the Green Campus Coalition of Maine, the working group of sustainability directors at Maine college campuses.

Steve’s past positions include Sustainability Director at Unity College where he developed a plan for the college to become 100% solar powered and earned the college the prestigious STARS Gold ranking with the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education. Before that, he was Director of Environmental and Energy Strategies for the James Sewall Company of Old Town where he led a Maine Technology Institute research project that found that Maine could be 79% solar powered if all suitably-oriented rooftops had solar PV panels.

Prior to moving home to Maine, he was a member of the Energy Commission in Plymouth NH where he was obtained funding for the renovation of a town office building to net-zero energy and the installation of 160 KW of solar PV panels on town properties included a major PV array at the sewage treatment plant that offsets 40% of its electrical costs.

In his own home, he has installed two air-source heat pumps to completely eliminate heating oil, a hybrid hot water heater to reduce his water heating costs by 70%, and insulated the basement and attic to further reduce energy consumption and increase comfort. He would like to install rooftop solar panels but so far his shade trees that also produce maple syrup each year have convinced him otherwise. However, he has solar panels on his summer place at the lake and hasn’t paid for any electricity there since 2011.

Steve has a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine.

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Around Town 7/26/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

The annual Peninsula Potters Studio Tour is coming up on the first weekend in August, so today we’re checking in with potter Mark Bell to get all the details

 

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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NextWave Radio Hour 7/25/24: Johnathan Riley

Host: Elizabeth Walztoni
Producer: Pepin Mittelhauser
Theme music by Zeke Sacaridiz. All other music is royalty free. This project was made possible by the generous support of the Maine Community Foundation.

NextWave Radio Hour is a program focused on and featuring folks around their 20s and 30s from all across Maine. In this program, hosts Pepin Mittelhauser and Elizabeth Walztoni talk with young people who trailblaze their own paths in our modern political, economic, and social climate, and provides unique perspectives and stories of life from the next generation working to create the future they hope to see.

Guest/s:
Johnathan Riley, journalist and poet.

About the hosts:
Pepin Mittelhauser (he/they) is the Digital Media Coordinator at WERU Community Radio, and an avid gardener and farmer, musician and singer, and lover of nature and the outdoors. He graduated from College of the Atlantic in ’19 with focuses in sustainable agriculture, food systems, and live and recorded audio engineering and production. He has lived in Downeast Maine his entire life.

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Climate & Community 7/25/24: Dawnland Festival Panel Weaves a Sustainable Environment

Host: Brianna Cunliffe

Description: Climate & Community covers the panel “Weaving a Sustainable Environment” as part of the Dawnland Festival of Art & Ideas, hosted this July by the Abbe Museum, to highlight Indigenous thought leadership on some of the biggest issues of our time. The panel featured insights from Dr. Suzanne Greenlaw, Honor Keeler, and Sherri Mitchell. Learn more at www.abbemuseum.org/dawnland-festival.

Johannah, Brianna, Tanvi, Gus, Corey, and Beth are the team at A Climate to Thrive, a nonprofit working to build a model of community-driven, solutions-focused climate action. Since its origins around a potluck table as concerned neighbors gathered to take action on climate change, A Climate to Thrive, or ACTT, has been supporting solutions on Mount Desert Island and beyond since 2016. Learn more at www.aclimatetothrive.org.

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Around Town 7/25/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

The 2024 College of the Atlantic Summer Institute: Questions of Democracy examines democracy in the United States during what many consider to be one of the most consequential years of our times. Speakers will explore questions of authoritarianism, artistic freedom, and sociopolitical change during a total of 11 sessions over five days, July 29–August 2. The sessions are free, but registration is required at coa.edu/si.   Shawn Keeley, Dean of Institutional Advancement at COA, joins us today with the details.

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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World Ocean Radio 7/24/24: Bright Ideas Toward a Sustainable Future

Host: Peter Neill
Producer: Trisha Badger

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This week we are discussing two technological innovations, both bright ideas that could have huge impacts for useful, sustainable change for the future. The first is WaterCube, a machine that pulls vapor from the air and condenses it into liquid form for household use and disaster relief; the second is Sway, a farmed seaweed application designed to create a compostable packaging that is biodegradable and chemical free.

WORLD OCEAN RADIO
5-minute weekly insights dive into ocean science, advocacy and education hosted by Peter Neill, lifelong ocean advocate and maritime expert. A catalog of more than 700 episodes offer perspectives on global ocean issues and viable solutions, and celebrate exemplary projects. Available for RSS feed and for broadcast by college and community radio stations worldwide. You will also find this week’s World Ocean Radio episode at Exchange.prx.org, at Audioport.org, WorldOceanObservatory.org where the full catalog of episodes is searchable by theme, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Around Town 7/24/24: Local News, Culture and Events

Host/Producer: Amy Browne

Maine filmmakers Lee Ann and Thomas Szelog’s feature length wildlife film “A Peace of Forest”–shot in Maine- will be shown at the Colonial Theatre in Belfast on Tuesday, 7/30/24.  Lee Ann join us today to talk about the film.
 
FMI:  

About the host:
Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices, Maine Currents and Maine: The Way Life Could Be, Amy also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and Maine Association of Broadcasters awards for her work in 2017 and 2021.

Theme music: BreakBeat Chemists I, 2015
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License

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Outside the Box 7/23/24: “AI (Artificial Intelligence)”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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