Putting Out the Planetary Fire

On Sunday September 17, an estimated 75,000 people marched in the streets of New York City in the largest climate event in the US since the onset of COVID. The march called for President Biden to take much stronger action against fossil fuels, including fulfilling his campaign pledge to stop issuing permits for fossil fuel extraction on federal lands and for him to formally declare a climate emerg...

Organizers estimated that 75,000 people participated in the End Fossil Fuels march in NYC on September 17 leading up to the United Nations Climate Summit. Protestors expressed displeasure about how slow world leaders, starting with President Biden, are moving to try to prevent climate collapse. We hear from Santosh Nandabalan of Food and Water Watch; Barry Pendegrass of the Religious Action Center...

Fifteen years after American International Group Inc. (AIG) nearly failed due to reckless financial practices, forcing the federal government to respond with a $182 billion bailout, climate protesters on September 14 rallied at the company’s headquarters in Manhattan to call on them end its risky underwriting and investments in fossil fuels. We hear first from speakers at the rally, including Rick...

Two dozen climate protestors were arrested on Thursday morning after hundreds of activists shut down the headquarters of Citibank, which has provided $333 billion in funding to fossil fuel projects since the Paris climate agreement took effect. We start off with several minutes of the sounds from the protests, followed by comments by protestors Ted Glick, Laura Wolfson, Eco of the Green Worker All...

Nearly a hundred climate activists rallied at the Museum Of Modern Art in NYC on September 15 to call for the removal of board chair Marie-Josée Kravis because of her and her husband’s Henry Kravis’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. The protest comes before the major September 17 march to End Fossil Fuels in NYC prior to the UN climate summit. Henry Kravis, whose net worth is around $7.8bn, is a...

On Thursday September 7 during the women's semifinal at the US Open with Coco Gauff, 3 climate protestors with Extinction Rebellion stood up to say End Fossil Fuels, halting the match for nearly an hour. Shayok Mukhopadhyay of Extinction Rebellion NYC Discusses why his glued his feet to the ground for the protest and about the importance of the protests in NYC leading up to the Sept. 17 rally...

Tens of thousands are expected in NYC on Sept. 17 for a rally and march to End Fossil Fuels being held in conjunction with the United Nations' special meeting on climate. Probably the largest climate rally in the US since COVID. A key focus is to urge President Biden to take stronger action to halt fossil fuels. Bob Cohen of Citizen Action is helping to organize buses from the Capital District...

Michael Klare is Professor Emeritus of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College. He recently wrote an article on Collapse 2.0 What a 2005 Bestseller Tells Us About Climate Change and Human Survival. He talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine about the existential challenges posed by climate change.  tomdispatch.com/collapse-2-0/

Jon Bowermaster interviewed Mark Dunlea on Green Radio Hour on Radio Kingston about his climate handbook Putting Out the Planetary Fire. How this summer's extreme weather highlights the need for system change not climate change, which means ending the dominant role of capitalism and Saying No to Fossil Fuels.

Peter Kalmus is a climate scientist and author of Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution. He is a data scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an associate project scientist at UCLA’s Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science & Engineering. He recently wrote that “Biden had the last opportunity of any president to keep the world under 1.5C of heating. Inste...

On Monday, August 14, the EcoAction Committee of the Green Party held a webinar on climate and agriculture. This segment focuses on the remarks of Liz Henderson of NOFA (Northeast Organic Farm Association), who discusses the need to build healthy soils and reforms needed in the pending Farm Bill. Agriculture is often overlooked as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally agricult...

A new report from the State Comptroller’s office found that generators of renewable power including solar and wind, would need to triple production to reach the law’s 2030 goal of 70 percent green electricity consumption. This underscores the need for the NY Power Authority to start building more wind and solar farms. The comptroller’s report notes that prior efforts to increase renewable energy h...

On Thursday, July 27, environmental groups delivered 27,570 petition signatures to EPA's DC office, calling for a ban on toxic vinyl chloride, the carcinogenic chemical used to make PVC plastic that was intentionally spilled and burned in East Palestine after the train derailment disaster in February 2023. We hear first from Heather McTeer Toney of Beyond Petrochemicals followed by Daniel Wins...

Beyond Plastics recently held a webinar on Plastics & The Future Of Our Planet: A Conversation With Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert. We hear first from Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics and a former regional EPA administrator, followed by Betsy and then Bill. Bill McKibben is the co-founder of 350.org and The Third Act and wrote the pivotal book The End of Nature. Betsy Kolbert is an...

Patti and Doug Wood Green State Radio Interviewed Mark Dunlea on his new book, Putting Out the Planetary Fire, an organizing guide for climate educators, students, and activists. This week Green Street radio segment includes part of the interview, mainly on the larger national and international view. The full interview starts with an overview of the recent failure of the NYS legislature to once ag...

On Julian Assange’s birthday, July 3rd, banner drops are being organized worldwide to demand his release after 11 years of confinement. The US wants to prosecute him for his role at WikiLeaks in working with Chelsea Manning to release videos showing American soldiers killing civilians in Iraq. Pippa Bartolotti of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace and the United National Anti-War coalition talks with M...

The NYS legislature left for the year without either house taking a vote on either the Packaging Reduction & Recycling Act or the expanded bottle bill. Alexis Goldsmith, National Organizing Director of Beyond Plastics, discusses why lawmakers are not standing up to the chemical and fossil fuel industries and the makes of packaging (Coke, Amazon). With Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

NY Renews, Citizen Action, PAUSE, and others held a press conference at the State Capitol on Thursday, May 25 to call for lawmakers to pass key Climate, Jobs, and Justice bills, including the 100% Renewable Capitol Bill, #NYHEAT and the Climate Superfund Act. Similar events were held throughout the state. We hear from NYPIRG Executive Director Blair Horner, State Assemblymember Phil Steck, Albany...

With the legislative session scheduled to end June 8, Environmental Chairs State Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick held a press conference on Monday June 5 to urge passage of their recently rewritten Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. The legislation would reduce packaging, including plastic packaging, by half over the next 12 years. It would also ban certai...

One of the few controversial bills that the State Assembly passed during their two day special session was banning the dumping of radioactive waste water from the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power plant into the Hudson River. Eric Weltman of the Hudson River discusses whether the Governor will sign the law, and gives an overview of the End Fossil Fuels rally and march being organiz...

NY Renews, Citizen Action, PAUSE, and others held a press conference at the State Capitol on Thursday, May 25 to call for lawmakers to pass key Climate, Jobs, and Justice bills, including the 100% Renewable Capitol Bill, #NYHEAT and the Climate Superfund Act. Similar events were held throughout the state. We hear from NYPIRG Executive Director Blair Horner, State Assemblymember Phil Steck, Albany...