Archives for Climate Change

RadioActive 11/1/12

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Program Topic: Climate change’s connection to Hurricane Sandy, and a local Maine initiative working to create community level momentum to combat carbon emissions

Key Discussion Points:
a) We look at the connections between the destructiveness of Hurricane Sandy and climate change.
Sea levels from Boston to Norfolk, VA are rising four times faster then global averages. Levels in New York are 1 foot higher then 100 years ago. Increased water vapor from warming sea temperatures increases rainfall and flooding, and is connected to the intensification of storms. According the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this September had the second highest temperature on record; sea surface temperatures off the Northeast, US, are about 5 degrees above average.
b) Is Hurricane Sandy a watershed moment for public, governmental and media attention to climate change?
c)We also look at the local initiative Maine Partners for Cool Communities to reduce carbon pollution through residential, grassroots efforts.
Guests:
Joseph Romm, Center for American Progress, writes Climate Progress blog at www.thinkprogress.org
Nancy Glassman, Maine Partners for Cool Communities, mid-coast coordinator for Green Sneakers
[email protected], www.coolmaine.org, www.efficiencymaine.com

RadioActive 6/9/11

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Today we look at Maine’s high ozone alert with a DEP meteorologist and talk with a member of the Union for Concerned Scientists on the connection to climate change.
Then we speak with a member of the Laborers union about and upcoming “Maine Worker’s Forum on Jobs”, featuring a presentation of the Living Labor Mural.
Guests:
-Maine DEP meteorologist Martha Webster.www.mainedep.com (click “Maine Air Quality Forecasts”) or toll free hotline (800) 223-1196
– Union of Concerned public health expert and co author of report “ Climate Change and Your Health : Rising Temperatures, Worsening Ozone Pollution”
Report at: www.ucsusa.org/climateandozonepollution
-Chris Tucker (Laborers 327) and Eastern Maine Labor Council
For registration and information on the “Maine Worker’s Forum on Jobs” : www.foodandmedicine.org

RadioActive 5/19/11

Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco and Amy Browne

Today we look at changing and extreme weather, the relationship to climate change, and the increased need for local governments and community responses.
Yesterday, the Union for Concerned Scientists held a telephone press conference to address the gathering increase in extreme weather, in the context of global climate change. The UCS press conference participants spoke to the work that’s beginning to be done in local communities and cities to integrate climate adaptation into their planning, and the work being done to shift costs from the public sector to the insurance markets.

Guests:
1)Katharine Hayhoe, Climate scientist and associate professor at Texas Tech University. www.climatechoices.org
2) Missy Stults, Climate Director, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability www.iclei.org/
www. chicagoclimateaction.org

RadioActive 12/30/10

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Topics: UN Climate Talks, Tar Sands- IEN, Arctic- Indigenous

Today we hear two interviews recorded at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change this month in Cancun, Mexico. We talk with Melina Laboucan-Massino from the Indigenous Environmental Network on the effects massive tar sands extraction has on the people and environment in Canada; and we hear from Patricia Cochran, the director of the Alaskan Native Science Commission and the co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Network on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

What are the environmental and health effects in indigenous and other communities in Canada from tar sands extraction?What is the effect of sea level rise on indigenous communities in Alaska? What were some of the issues and results of the UNFCCC meetings in Cancun , Mexico?

Guests:
Melina Laboucan-Massino, the Indigenous Environmental Network www.ienearth.org
Patricia Cochran, the director of the Alaskan Native Science Commission and the co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Network on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.