Archives for Climate Change

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 7/10/09

Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco and Amy Browne

Topic: The urgent impacts climate change will continue to have on food security through out the world. The G8 Summit in Italy this week has said they will examine these issues. Whether any plan will emerge remains to be seen. The leaders of the so-called Group of 8 or G8 countries are meeting in Italy this week in an annual summit to discuss global issues…

Guest: Gawain Kripke, Oxfam America’s policy director
To view report “Suffering the Science: Climate Change , People and Poverty” -www.Oxfam America.org. FMI www.350.org

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RadioActive 6/25/09

Producers/Hosts: Meredith DeFrancesco and Amy Browne

Today we look at a stand Maine health care providers are taking against climate change, we hear about shifting policy on the application of industrial pesticides in the state and we look at Congressman Michaud’s TRADE Act which would reorganize US trade priorities.

1.On Monday, Governor Baldacci signed a bill which will create a statewide registry for notification of agricultural pesticide application by aerial spray or air carrier application equipment.
Guest: executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) Russel Libby discusses what the legislation does and where it has fallen short on the protection of people and organic crops from pesticide drift. FMI www.mofga.org

2.On Tuesday, 100 healthcare professionals from across the state sent Maine’s Congressional delegation a letter urging them to take decisive action to address climate change specifically the United States production of green house gases. The focus of the letter was the public health implications of climate change. We speak with Dr Lani Grahm, the co-president of the Maine Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Her organization ,as well as the Maine Medical Association have stressed their deep concern on the issue. FMI www.psr.org/chapters/maine www.cleanandhealthyme.org

3. A bill which would establish stringent standards for future free trade agreements, and the review and potential renegotiation of current free trade agreements, was introduced yesterday in Congress.
HR 3012, the “Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment” or “TRADE” Act was introduced, with 106 co-sponsors, by Maine Congressman Mike Michaud, the Chairman of the House Trade Working Group.
The TRADE Act would require adherence by country signatories to labor, environmental and human rights standards, as well as addressing the privatization of public services, intellectual property rights and procurement policies.
Even more significantly, the Act would require a review, and potential renegotiation, of a number of current trade agreements, including NAFTA, CAFTA and the World Trade Organization’s Uruguay Round agreements, based on the Act’s new trade standards.

Guest: Sarah Bigney, Maine Fair Trade Campaign www.mainefairtrade.org

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Talk of the Towns 5/08/09

Producer/Host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

Topic: Maine’s Climate Future—what are the implications?

Guests: George Jacobson, School of Biology and Ecology & Climate Change Institute, University of Maine; Paul Anderson, University of Maine Sea Grant; Ivan Fernandez, Plant, Soil & Environmental Sciences, and Climate Change Institute, University of Maine; David Littell, Commissioner, Maine Department of Environmental Protection

What led to this report and what was different in the process of pulling it together? How is the report organized? What does the record of Maine’s past and present climate tell us about the future? What does the report find for freshwater ecosystems, forests, biodiversity and indigenous peoples of Maine? Maine is a heavily forested state, influencing both our economy and where people live and recreate… what are some of the implications of people making a living from and enjoying Maine’s woodlands? what are some of the implications of Maine’s climate future for people living and making a living on the coast? What led Governor to request this report? How would you characterize its contribution to our response, as a State, to the issues? How are the executive and legislative branches of Maine government responding… what are the highlights? What should citizens and stakeholders be watching for?

FMI: www.climatechange.umaine.edu/mainesclimatefuture/index.htm

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RadioActive 2/05/09

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne & Meredith DeFranscesco

Topic: Yesterday coporations denied the existence of climate change, today they say they can fix it.  What is their role?  An interview with Orin Langelle of the Global Justice Ecology Project’s “New Voices on Climate Change” Iniative.  We speak with him by phone from Paraguay where he is attending meetings following the recent World Social Forum in Brazil.  And we talk with Dylan Voorhees, Clean Energy and Global Warming Project Director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.  That group, along with more than 100 Maine-based businesses, presented a letter to Maine’s Congressional Delegation this week, urging them to lead the fight to stop climate change.

FMI:  www.globaljusticeecology.org/newvoices  and www.nrcm.org

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