Around Town 2/23/23: A Climate to Thrive Offers Free “Climate Ambassador” training

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This week:
A Climate to Thrive is launching a statewide program to train Mainers to be climate ambassadors in their local communities. The statewide Climate Ambassadors program, which begins on March 9, will help participants tap into their unique skills and networks to take meaningful climate action and inspire others to join them. The virtual program is open to all Mainers free of charge. Naomi Albert, Project Manager, joins us with all the details.

More information about the program is available here

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.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/23/23: Informed Consent 1

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

When we are going to undergo a medical procedure or be part of a research study, we are asked to give “informed consent” to permit the medial professionals to provide treatment or to be part of a research study. There are very specific criteria for what “informed consent” means in those situations. On the web, we are often asked to give consent to our Internet Service Provider (ISP) or to web sites we use to enable the ISP or the site to collect and sell our personal information. But what does “informed consent” mean in those cases? Let’s think about that, and begin to look at what a recent national study discovered about that question.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

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Power for the People 2/22/23: New England Energy Policies and Pricing

Producer/Host: Steve Kahl

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

This month:
Discussion on energy policies and pricing, renewable energy, community solar, and ISO-NE electrical pricing control which is based on the seasonal and regional natural gas price.
-Beneficial electrification
-ISO-NE control on electricity pricing in New England
-Grid status and inte-rconnectedness of renewable energy sources
-Community solar

Guest/s: Ken Colburn, Principal of Symbiotic Strategies in Bar Harbor

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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Relationship Rewind 2/21/23: “Euphoria”

Host: Alli Williamson, Youth Educator and Advocate at NextStep Domestic Violence Project
Helpline: 1(800) 315-5579
Music credit: Brandon Nelson, local musician donated theme music for the show.

Relationship Rewind: Rewinding relationships in popular media and breaking down behaviors based in power, control, and abuse.

This episode:
A discussion of the TV show “Euphoria,” which centers around a group of high school students while they navigate a number of challenges like dating violence, relationships, addiction and more.

Guest/s:
Em, local young person who has seen and experienced the examples of relationships in tv shows and movies and how they impact those watching.

About the host:
Alli Williamson is the youth educator and advocate for NextStep Domestic Violence Project based in Hancock and Washington County, ME. She teaches young people from Kindergarten to College about what power and control looks like in friendships and relationships, what resources are available to support those experiencing this, and how we can work to make our schools and communities safer and more equal spaces where abuse may be less likely to happen.

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The Essential Rhythm 2/19/23: What is mucus?

Producer/Host: Sarah O’Malley

This episode explains the chemical structure of mucus, and revisits is role in early animal evolution as well as as a lubricant for animal movement and travel.

About the host:
Sarah O’Malley is an ecologist, naturalist and science communicator passionate about deepening her listeners’ experiences with the natural world. She teaches biology and sustainability at Maine Maritime Academy and is currently collaborating on a guide book to the intertidal zone in the Gulf of Maine.

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The Nature of Phenology 2/18/23: Ice Acoustics

Producers: Hazel Stark & Joe Horn
Host: Hazel Stark

Perhaps no winter noises are quite as peculiar as those produced on a frozen lake or pond.

Photos, a full transcript, references, contact information, and more available at thenatureofphenology.wordpress.com

About the host/writers:
Joe Horn lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder of Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide and Carpenter. He is passionate about fishing, cooking, and making things with his hands. He has both an MBA in Sustainability and an MS focused in Environmental Education. Joe can be reached by emailing [email protected]

Hazel Stark lives in Gouldsboro, is Co-Founder and Naturalist Educator at Maine Outdoor School, L3C, and is a Registered Maine Guide. She loves taking a closer look at nature through the lens of her camera, napping in beds of moss, and taking hikes to high points to see what being tall is all about. She has an MS in Resource Management and Conservation and is a lifelong Maine outdoorswoman. Hazel can be reached by emailing [email protected]

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