EcoTalk

Because we all contribute to global warming, be co-dependent no more:

1st Step: Admit you are powerless over your addiction to using energy and that your high energy use has become unmanageable, and then change 10 light bulbs in your house to compact florescent bulbs. Taking this first step saves 1,795 lbs of carbon dioxide per year! 

Want to hear what engaging, positive voices EcoTalk could bring to your radio station? Check out Betsy Rosenberg's inspiring mix of green ideas, trends, and personalities, and call your local affiliate to demand that EcoTalk be heard on your patch of this great green Earth. LISTEN

Powering the planet (pdf) is the title of the inaugural speech given by Nathan Lewis at the California Clean Innovation Conference. At this point we don't have a recording.

This might be EcoTalk's last hurrah as a daily show, but we'll be damned if we won't go out with yet another jam-packed hour of news that will inform the future that us optimists are determined to see through.
If the mainstream media were a little more concerned with concrete plans for our energy future than the cost of somebody's haircut, presidential outside shot Governor Bill Richardson (NM) might have a reasonable shot at the White House this upcoming silly season. David Sandretti of the League of Conservation Voters joins Betsy to outline the big guy's plan to combat climate change. LISTEN (10 min)

Treehugger Correspondent Simran Sethi
reports on France's request that the US show more leadership on reducing emissions, the green rebuilding of tornado-devastated Greensburg, Kansas, the unusual challenge of making the Burning Man festival sustainable, and Paul Hawken's incisive new book "Blessed Unrest." LISTEN (8 min)

Shawnee Hoover of Exxpose Exxon comments on reports that say that despite their ongoing insistence that they've severed ties with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and renounced smearing the science of climate change, Exxon "is still funding more than $2 million to the majority of climate skeptic groups" closely linked to CEI and their ilk.  LISTEN (8 min)

Richard Heinberg performs his role as EcoTalk's final (for now) guest with aplomb, discussing Exxon's latest shenanigans as well as his books The Party's Over and The Oil Depletion Protocol.

And finally, Betsy sees us out with a brand new Madonna tune, released as part of the LiveEarth series of concerts to combat climate change: "Hey You." Download it here! LISTEN (12 min)

Toronto Mayor David Miller talks about representing one of the sixteen major world cities (plus five major banking institutions) to cut carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with the Greenest of practices and the Clinton Climate Initiative: "This is a win win win win win win." This what it takes! Teamwork, optimism, and practical business.  LISTEN (11 min)

Paul Ehrlich has been both authoritative and controversial for forty years, so that fact that to this day his  still somewhat taboo advocacy of population control and his other work are cited in newspaper editorials no longer shocks him: "I am an outsider from the point of view of the media. I am an insider from the point of view of science. Scientists don't care what Jerry Falwell, or Limbaugh, or Coulter say. They care about what other scientists say." Join us for a special interview that is as compelling as it is freewheeling.
PART ONE (7 min)  PART TWO (12 min)

Greg & Connie Mattison of the "GreenByDesign", the creative and frisky Green Building TV show that's taking the state of the New Jersey (and beyond) by storm. Connie: "I think there are many out there who don't know where to begin. We thought, 'Well, you can watch us while we learn.'" Greg: "We call ourselves newlygreens." Check it out! LISTEN (8 min)

Beantrees Organic Coffee founder Barrie Gromala tells us about the coffee that has won over celebrities like Oprah's chef and Aerosmith, and announces a great deal for all of us and our planet: order coffee from Beantrees.com, and Beantrees will donate one dollar per bag to keep EcoTalk on the air!
LISTEN (9 min)

In the growing Green Building Community, Andres Edwards of EduTracks and author of The Sustainability Revolution is among the most thoughtful. Here he opines on Tibet, Deep Ecology, and helping companies like Whole Foods, Pfizer, small non profits, and government agencies make the practical decisions that we will look back on and call wisdom: "When I started, it was a huge learning curve for folks to begin to understand, 'What is Green building?' As it's very rapidly been mainstreamed people are a lot more familiar." LISTEN (11 min)

Green Building Initiative's Ward Hubbell checks in with EcoTalk following his Senate testimony on how the Federal Government makes Green Building an implicit part of a smart, forward-thinking government: "I think what [the Senate] were trying to do was get educated on the various rating systems out there and the different approaches." Find out about GBI's Green Globes rating system here. LISTEN (8 min)

Clean Air Watch President (and EcoTalk favorite) Frank O'Donnell weighs in on the President Bush's pledge to abide by the Clean Air Act (or at least mouth words to that effect). "I think that the president has come up with a strategy to stall off any kind of action, and essentially put the US EPA into a straitjacket of bureauracratic process," Frank tells Betsy. Does this have to be "a long process", as the President says? LISTEN (10 min)

This is a rerun of our April 30 program:
Greenpeace Canada Targets Prime Minister Harper   LISTEN (10 min)
Vanity Fair's 2nd Annual Green Issue   LISTEN ( 8 min)
Kim McKay: True Green   LISTEN (12  min)
Lori Pye, Eco-Psychology, and Eco-Suicide   LISTEN (8  min)

Read it all in Joe Garofoli's chronicle with a series of photos by Christina Koci Hernandez.

Dear Friends of EcoTalk

“EcoTalk’s Inconvenient Truth":

If Green is the new Black why are we in the Red? 

The nearly three years of broadcasting our groundbreaking program on Air America have come with nearly constant turbulence. As the nation's first progressive network with ambitious expansion plans experienced growing pains, EcoTalk weathered them all - but not without significant cost. Selling advertising and partnerships was our only means to cover production costs and that task was made difficult for many reasons.

Paul Hawken talks about his most recent book Blessed Unrest : How the Largest Movement in the World Came in to Being and Why No One Saw it Coming.
Part 1  (11 min)  Part 2 (7 min)

Kevin Contreras talks about his new PBS program Building Green.
LISTEN ( 10 min)
You can also read his blog.

This week, correspondent Jeff McIntire Strasburg sheds some light on the murky question of ethanol versus biodiesel. We speak with Mark Oberholzer, a runner-up in the 2006 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition, whose plan for roadside turbines aims at getting something back from the flow of traffic. We also speak with the designer of World Without Oil, an online alternate reality game that simulates a world in the throes of an oil shock.  LISTEN (9 min) 

This is a rerun of our program of April 27:
Schwarzenegger tells the EPA to shape up  LISTEN (10 min)
Treehugger: Earth Day Hangover Edition  LISTEN (8 min)
PG&E's Nancy McFadden  LISTEN  (11 min)
Clif Bars GreenNotes Program  LISTEN  (8 min)

As the Dead Sea shrinks three feet per year, can Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories find common ground in these common waters to build a more lasting peace? Oregon State professor and author of Hydropolitics along the Jordan River: the impact of scarce water resources on the Arab-Israeli conflict Aaron Wolf offers his thoughts on the solutions, and the political will necessary to save the Dead Sea. LISTEN (11 min)

Think only inorganic, GMO, pesticide-laden agriculture can feed the world's poor, and that organic is merely an indugence of the elite? While certain parties have a vested interest in having us believe that, University of Michigan researcher Catherine Badgley tells Betsy about some new studies that suggest that organic agriculture can feed the world. LISTEN (7 min)

Brad College Environmental Studies Chair Mark H. Lytle checks in to discuss his new book The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement: "[Carson] really believed that the right to endure gave us a right to know. She felt that unless the public had the facts necessary to make an informed decision, they were going to be unwitting victims." We take such citizen advocacy for granted today, but as multinational coporations and the chemical revolution created a brave new world of potential dangers to human beings, Carson was one of the first people to stick her neck out for all of us. LISTEN (12 min)

The city of Boston has cut its PC energy use by an astonishing 44 percent with the help of power management software company Verdiem. With power management something we need in every city, Verdiem Vice President of Business Development Dave Harvey tells Betsy what they can offer to any City or Company in the land. LISTEN (8 min)

This is a rerun of our April 20 program:
Earth Day co-founder Pete McCloskey   PART ONE (11 min)  PART TWO (7 min)
Treehugger: Eco America's Bob Perkowitz  LISTEN (12 min)
Home Depot's New Eco Options  LISTEN (8 min)