Archives for mining

RadioActive 3/28/13

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Issue: Environmental and Social Justice

Program Topic: Metallic Mining in Maine and El Salvador

Key Discussion Points:
a) Last legislative session, an effort spearheaded by Irving resulted in legislation directing Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection to over haul state mining laws to make it easier for the exploitation of gold, copper, silver and zinc. Though the impetus is a project at Bald Mountain in Arookstook County, the changes will open up mining at number of locations across the state with metallic metals.
b) The country of El Salvador, based on past experiences within their own borders and the experiences of communities in neighboring countries in Central America, has kept a resurgence of gold mining at bay, through government action, pushed by an unparallelled social movement. Around the globe the effects of mining include water over use, severe water pollution and it’s ensuing health impacts, and the human rights abuses and violence perpetrated against anti-mining activists by myriad factions in support of mining companies.
c) US El Salvador Sister Cities, and it’s local affiliate Power in Community Alliances (PICA), is hosting a speaking tour by Salvadoran anti mining activists. They will present along with Natural Resources Council of Maine staff scientist Nick Bennett, on the parallels between Maine and Salvadoran mining prospects and resistance.

Guest:
Jan Morrill, Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), past US El Salvador Sister Cities staff, and organizer with El Salvador’s National Table on Metallic Mining. She is originally from Maine.

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WERU News Report 4/11/12

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio contributed by: John Greenman
Issue: Alternative, Independent Local News
Program Topics:
Maine’s Legislative Session is winding down, and as law makers prepare to recess there are several pieces of important legislation that are moving quickly through the process, sometimes with changes that the public may not be aware of. One instance is the latest version of a worker’s comp bill that has raised concerns among worker’s rights advocates who held a press conference in Bangor on Monday. (FMI: www.foodandmedicine.org) Updates on other legislative action today, and an interview w/ Judy Berk, Natural Resources Council of Maine, re: the Maine mining bill and “takings” legislation (FMI: www.nrcm.org)

Key Discussion Points:
Worker’s Comp legislation
Other legislation voted on today
Mining bill update
“Takings” legislation

Guests:

Speakers recorded at a press conference re: Worker’s Comp legislation: Jack McKay, Director of Food AND Medicine; Rev. Mark Doty, Mark Richards, Dean Harding, Loren Snow

Interview with Judy Berk, Communications Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine

Call In Program: No

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RadioActive 2/10/11

Producers: Carolyn Coe and Lindsey Saunders
Host: Amy Browne

Topic: Santurban mine, a proposed gold and silver mine in Colombia

Report highlights the uniqueness and importance of the paramo of Santurban, resistance to Greystar Resources application for an environmental license to extract mineral resources from the area, and community perceptions of the short and long-term effects of a large-scale mining project in the region.

Featured speakers:
Tatiana Rodriguez Maldonado of Friends of the Earth Colombia
Deputy Roberto Schmalbach, president of the department (state)-level assembly of Santander
Andres Fabian Ita, student at the Industrial University of Santander and a member of the ecological collective La Nawal
along with people interviewed at a bus station in Bucaramanga, Colombia

Report by Carolyn Coe and Lindsey Saunders

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RadioActive 7/24/08

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne & Meredith DeFrancesco

Topic/Guests:  Award-winning local artist and activist Robert Shetterly talks with Teri Blanton.  Blanton is a survivor of a Superfund toxic waste site near her home in Harlan County, Kentucky.  Her courageous stand against the abuses of coal companies has won her notoriety within her state.  An active member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Teri’s personal mission is to reach out to her community about the issue of Mountaintop Removal Mining.    Teri Blanton will give the keynote speech at the 2008 WERU Full Circle Fair in Blue Hill, Maine on Saturday, July 26th, 2008.  Robert Shetterly will also be painting her portrait for his series “Americans Who Tell the Truth”.

FMI: www.ilovemountains.org, www.americanswhotellthetruth.org

**Please note that a typo in the Fair Guide states that Blanton’s keynote will be 2:30-3:30p.m. and that information was given on today’s show.  The correct time is 1:30-2:30pm.

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