Tag: Climate Change

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 http://www.iclei.org/
www. chicagoclimateaction.org

WERU News Report 3/29/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Meaghan LaSala

Segment 1: LD 1129, “An Act To Provide the Department of Environmental Protection with Regulatory Flexibility Regarding the Listing of Priority Chemicals”, and LD 1185, An Act To Amend the Process for Prioritizing Toxic Chemicals in Children’s Products
Producer: Amy Browne
The Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources heard testimony today on 2 pieces of proposed legislation, aimed at revising the Kids Safe Products Act— which was passed in 2008, with the goal of protecting children from harmful chemicals like bisphenol A, or BPA.
LD 1185, An Act To Amend the Process for Prioritizing Toxic Chemicals in Children’s Products, is sponsored by Senator Seth Goodall and several co-sponsors, and has the support of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Goodall’s bill would narrow the scope of chemicals for consideration as “priority chemicals”, and require that at least 2 additional priority chemicals be designated by January 1, 2013.
Environmentalists say that the other piece of proposed legislation being presented to the committee today would gut the KidsSafe Product Act. LD 1129, “An Act To Provide the Department of Environmental Protection with Regulatory Flexibility Regarding the Listing of Priority Chemicals” is sponsored by Representative James Hamper, a Republican from Oxford. The Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources was still hearing testimony as we went to air, but here are excerpts from Representative Hamper’s presentation of his bill.

Segment 2: An interview with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuk, Nobel Peace nominee and world leader on climate change and human rights.
Producer: Meaghan LaSala
Sheila is also a visiting scholar for the 2010-2011 school year at Bowdoin College’s Arctic Studies Center. Sheila discusses her belief that indigenous voices must be brought to the forefront of international dialogues around climate change, describes the traditional Inuit hunting culture, and details the ways in which this ancient culture is already under threat due to climate change. She explains why the Arctic experiences the minute changes of global warming more drastically than other areas of the world, and how these changes threaten the Inuit way of life. Sheila also discusses her vision of “bridging the gap” between indigenous knowledge and the rationalism of globalization– one that does not consign indigenous cultures to a museum, but rather puts them at the forefront of the solution, with feet planted firmly in both worlds.

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.

RadioActive 12/9/10

Producers/Hosts: Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco

Segment 1: Climate conference in Cancun, Mexico

Segment 2: Local artist/activist Robert Shetterly talks about a national “Veterans for Peace” protest that he will be attending (and reporting from) in Washington, DC next week.

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