Category: RadioActive

RadioActive is a grassroots environmental and social justice news radio journal hosted by Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco and heard Thursdays from 4:00 – 4:30 pm on WERU FM 89.9 Blue Hill and 102.9 Bangor, Maine in the United States.

RadioActive 1/17/19

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Land Use Planning Commission Poised to Open 1.3 million Acres of Maine Woods to Development

The Maine Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) is poised to make the biggest proposed policy change in Commission history. Their plan to change adjacency criteria, eliminating the so-called “one mile rule”, would open up over 1.3 million acres of the Maine woods to residential subdivisions. 800,000 of those acres would also be opened to commercial development. This would open an unspecified number of class 3 lakes to development.
Opponents say, the policy change would also reverse a 2001 legislative ban on large residential subdivisions of 25 acres (so called, kingdom lots), and would allow subdivisions of up to 14 lots and 30 acres to meet only limited environmental review on approximately 400,000 acres.
The LUPC is accepting written comments on their proposed development changes until January 22. Email comments to Benjamin.Godsoe@maine.gov

Guest:
Cathy Johnson, Senior Staff Attorney, Forest and Wildlife Director, Natural Resources Council of Maine
www.nrcm.org/projects/forests-wildlife/maine-north-woods-protection-lupc/lupc-adjacency-principle-maines-north-woods/
www.nrcm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-one-mile-rule-general-factsheet-post-hearing.pdf
www.nrcm.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/NRCMadjacencytestimony62018.pdf
www.nrcm.org/projects/forests-wildlife/maine-north-woods-protection-lupc/

Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Maine Land Use Planning Commission
Proposed Rules Revisions: Revised Applications of Adjacency Principle and Subdivision Standards : www.maine.gov/dacf/lupc/projects/adjacency/rulemaking/Adj_Sub_PublicCommentDraft_Dec2018.pdf

Today’s program was produced with the Sunlight Media Collective.

RadioActive 1/10/19

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Environmental and Social Justice: Penobscot Tribe Response to Department of Environmental Protection Appointment

Key Discussion Points:
a) Today we hear from the Penobscot Nation Chief, Ambassador and other community leaders on Governor Mills’ recent nomination of Assistant Attorney General Jerry Reid to head the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
b) In his position in the Attorney General’s Office, he was lead counsel in the still ongoing cases Penobscot Nation v. Attorney General Janet Mills and the State’s lawsuit against the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s order to increase water quality standards in tribal sustenance fishing waters.
c) The Legislative Environmental and Natural Resources Committee is expected to hold a public hearing on Reid’s nomination sometime this month.

Today’s program was produced with the Sunlight Media Collective. Josh Woodbury and Chek Wingo of Sunlight Media Collective provided field audio. Video, transcripts and updates will be posted at www.sunlightmediacollective.org.

Guests:
Maria Girouard, Penobscot, historian, activist, co-founder of Dawnland Environmental Defense www.facebook.com/dawnlanddefense
Chief Kirk Francis, Penobscot Nation
Maulian Dana, Penobscot Nation Ambassador www.facebook.com/AmbassadorDana
Sherri Mitchell, attorney, author, activist www.facebook.com/sacredinstructions

For more information on confirmation hearing:
Joint Legislative Environment and Natural Resources Committee legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees/ENR
Community Water Justice: www.facebook.com/communitywaterjustice/

RadioActive 11/1/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Environmental and Social Justice: Root Causes of Migrant Caravan and Political Violence in Central America and US

Key Discussion Points:

a) This week, we again turn to the thousands of migrants travelling together from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala towards the US to seek asylum.
b) We look further at the political repression experienced by Hondurans since the US supported 2009 coup and at the environmental, human rights and economic impacts mega-projects have had on the population.
c) We also reflect on the connections between the recent hatred fueled violence in the US and the demonization of immigration.

And, as November 6th deadline for public comment looms, we look at the Trump Administration’s attempt to repeal the 1997 Flores Amendment, which prohibits the US federal government from holding migrant children in detention centers for over 20 days.

Guests:
Grahame Russel, director of Rights Action
rightsaction.org/
Reporting by Sandra Cuffe, travelling with caravan:
www.aljazeera.com/profile/sandra-cuffe.html?fbclid=IwAR0v8J89VkxRSHqITwwKVTX-gePFbZrWxTyrVscakQLOOV2hrLp94kb8Fo4

Dennis Chinoy, US El Salvador Sister Cities, PICA (Power in Community Alliances)
www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/
www.pica.ws/

Information on Flores Amendment: familiesbelong.org/flores?

RadioActive 10/25/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Migrant Caravan from Central America: Root Causes and Human Rights

Key Discussion Points:

a) As thousands of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala travel in a caravan through Mexico towards the US, we speak with Patricia Montes, executive director od the immigrant rights organization Centro Presente, in East Boston.

b) We look at the root causes, and connections to the United States policies, including poverty, unemployment, gang violence and political repression, including following the US backed coup in Honduras in 2009.

c) We also look at human rights impacts, as the Trump Administration seizes on the caravan to inflame knee jerk, anti-immigrant sentiment during the mid-term election, now saying he will “call up the US military and close our southern border.”

Guest: Patricia Montes, executive director, Centro Presente , www.cpresente.org/

RadioActive 10/18/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Environmental and Social Justice: El Salvador Social Movement

Key Discussion Points:

a) We sat down with two members of the Salvadoran social movement, Bernardo Belloso of CRIPDES and Zulma Tobar of US El Salvador Sister Cities, to talk about some of the issues confronting the organized rural communities in El Salvador.

b) These include the growth of the sugar cane industry and the impacts on health from agrochemicals and excessive use of water, national efforts to privatize water and climate change. In 2016, El Salvador became the first country to ban metallic mining, a result of massive social movement efforts.

c) Since 1991, Bangor, through local organization PICA (http://www.pica.ws/) and US El Salvador Sister Cities, has had a sistering relationship with the Salvadoran community Carasque, one of the 300 rural communities organized through CRIPDES. MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association is sistered with the Salvadoran sustainable agricultural organization, CORDES. (www.mofga.org/Publications/The-Maine-Organic-Farmer-Gardener/Spring-2015/Sustainable-Agriculture-in-El-Salvador). WERU Community Radio is sistered with community radio station Radio Sumpul in the organized community Guarjilla. (www.radiosumpul.org/)

Guests:
Zulma Tobar, US El Salvador Sister Cities www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/
Bernardo Belloso, CRIPDES www.cripdes.net/ www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/cripdes/

Thanks to Andrea Mercardo for translation.

RadioActive 8/9/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Union of Concerned Scientists on Heat Waves and Climate Change

Key Discussion Points:
a) Today we speak with the Union off Concerned Scientists’ senior climate scientist about climate change and extreme heat events, and what to expect if we do not curtail carbon emissions.
b) The Union of Concerned Scientists has just released two informational compilations/fact sheets on Heat Waves and Climate Change, where they distill the acceleration of extreme heat trends, their connection to human induce climate change and impacts on human health and infrastructure.
c) Based on a preponderance off evidence, these publications conclude if our carbon emissions continue at the current rate, most of the US could see an increase of 20 to 30 more days with temperatures above 90 degrees a year in the coming decades, with the Southeast experiencing a 40-50 day increase. The USC reports, do conclude, however, if global carbon emissions can be kept below 550 parts per million by the year 2100, the projected frequency of heat waves could be greatly reduced.

Guest: Dr. Rachel Licker, Union of Concerned Scientists, senior climate scientist

RadioActive 8/2/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Penobscot Elder Butch Phillips Speaks on the Penobscot River

Today, Penobscot Elder Butch Phillips speaks about his experiences on the Penobscot River, the Penobscot River Restoration Trust’s impacts on sea run fish and tribal culture, the spiritual Katahdin 100 and the Penobscot Nation’s current legal struggle to have their relationship with the Penobscot River continue to be recognized by the State of Maine.

Butch Phillips served as the Penobscot Nation’s Lieutenant Governor from 1983-84, was a negotiator for the Penobscot Nation during the creation of the Maine Indian Land Claims Settlement Act, chaired the Tribes’ Fish and Game Committee for 15 years and was a tribal cultural ambassador for the Penobscot River Restoration Trust.

The Sunlight Media Collective sat down with Butch Phillips in his home for the Collective’s film project, The River Is Our Relative. He is interviewed by Dawn Neptune Adams, Joanna Weaver and Meredith DeFrancesco.

Joanna Weaver recorded audio. This program is a joint production with the Sunlight Media Collective.

Guest: Reuben “Butch” Phillips, Penobscot Nation Elder

RadioActive 6/14/18

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

Opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Drilling and Bangor Summer Food Program

Despite decades of protection admidst a protracted fight by Alaskan politicians and oil interest to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, Congress and presidential vetoes have held efforts at bay. At the end of this year, however, Congress passed a tax bill which included the opening of the refuge for drilling and considered the federal revenue as part of the offset for the tax cuts included in the bill.

This summer the Bangor School Department, the Bangor Housing Authority, the Bangor Public Library and the Brewer Housing Authority have partnered with the Good Shepherd Food Bank to provide a free Summer Lunch Program for children below the age of 18.

The following five sites in Bangor and Brewer will be serving meals during the following dates and times:
·Capehart Community Center – Monday, June 25th to Friday, August 31st Monday through Friday, 12pm – 1pm
·Bangor Public Library – Monday, June 25th to Friday, August 31st Monday through Friday, 12pm – 1pm
·Fairmount School – Monday, July 2nd to Friday, July 27th Monday through Friday, 8:30am – 9:30am for breakfast and12pm – 1pm for lunch
·Brewer Housing – Monday, June 25th to Friday August 24th Monday through Friday, 12pm – 1pm for lunch

Guests:

Mitch Jones, senior policy advocate, Food and Water Watch (www.foodandwaterwatch.org/)
Melissa Huston, Good Shepherd Food Bank (www.gsfb.org/) and Bangor Summer Lunch Program