EcoJustice Radio

For over two thousand years we have overlooked the scientific and cultural impact of human feeling. USC neuroscientist Dr. Antonio Damasio argues feelings and emotions are what make up human intelligence, consciousness, and the capacity for cultural creation. Thus when we look to engineering and policy solutions to our ecological collapse based on computational brainpower and artificial intelligen...

The fossil fuel industry has been promoting hydrogen as a reliable, low carbon, next-generation fuel to power cars, heat homes, and generate electricity. However, currently 99% of the annual supply of hydrogen comes from fracked methane gas. So will switching to hydrogen only lock us into continued fossil fuel use and additional investments in fossil fuel infrastructure? Proponents argue that when...

Devil's urine. That's what Dupont employees called PFAS. These toxic, human made forever chemicals are now in the blood of almost every human on the planet. They are found in drinking water around the world, even Antarctica. And they are used in a broad range of consumer products, like non-stick cookware, stain-resistant clothing, waterproof items, dental floss, and even medical masks. These are o...

The proliferation of suburban sprawl, built where wildlife live and thrive, threatens the safety and genetic diversity of wild animals and plant species. Migrating wildlife of all shapes and sizes must contend with humans driving on the 4.8 million miles of roads in the US, facing the danger of colliding with vehicles. Aside from driving less, one strategy to mitigate these accidents has gained bi...

In 1830 the U.S. government implemented the Indian Removal Act, which led to the infamous Trail of Tears (1837-39), the removal or forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation. Thus, roughly 15,000 Cherokees were removed from their homes in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and other states under both U.S. military force and state militias. Despite these acts of genocide and the resulting cr...

What would it take to transform a 100 year old house sitting near oil fields into the most sustainable clean energy zero-emissions house? That was the challenge our guest, architect Avideh Haghighi, took up with her personal project she named ZeroHouz [http://www.zerohouz.com]. We discuss the dangers of gas appliances inside homes and why people should consider replacing - and how to replace - the...

The UN has classified at least 40% of the Earth’s land as degraded. That figure is estimated to be somewhere between 1 billion, even up to 6 billion hectares of degraded land. Much if not most of this degradation can be attributed to human activity, particularly that of modern agriculture, its impacts & methodologies. Land degradation affects the physical health of all life, biodiversity, the nutr...

The Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas face a petrochemical and fracked gas export boom. Super-heat-charged hurricanes strike almost every year. As a result, Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and Low-Income Communities, face an interrelated number of issues including environmental justice; voting suppression; and access to housing, healthcare, clean water, energy, and safe fresh produce, just to...

Native people inhabited the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts for more than 10,000 years. It is the homeland of many First People, all related to one another. They are called the Sokoki, Pocumtuck, Nonotuck, Woronoco, and Agawam. Many other tribes visited and still visit this Native homeland. Among them are the Abenaki, Nipmuck, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, Pequot, Mohican, an...

Microplastics, small, micro sized plastic fragments are showing up in our water sources, rain, drinking water, and beverages like beer. It is in food, salt, and seafood. Moreover, it has recently been found in human breast milk, placentas, human lungs, and blood. One report indicated that blue whales are consuming 10 million pieces of microplastic particles a day. As plastic fragments, it continue...

The Earth’s water cycle, carbon cycle, and nutrient cycle depend on a healthy soil sponge, which is created and maintained by the ongoing work of other species. By restoring and nurturing the soil sponge, humanity has a unique opportunity to unify and come into balance with all life, particularly the world’s essential workers: Plants, fungi, bacteria, worms, insects, and other often unseen undergr...

Just as we analyze the impacts of our food and energy use, equally important is understanding from where our clothes originate, their environmental and social impacts, and how to dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner. According to a 2017 Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, every second on this planet, the equivalent of a garbage truck full of clothing and textiles is landfilled o...

Some 12,000 years ago, our ancestors in the Fertile Crescent turned from being hunter-gatherers to farming. Today, agriculture consumes one-third of global land use and food production creates roughly15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. We have become dependent upon farming; and how we choose to farm now, will surely determine the future of humanity. By increasing biodiversity through using cov...

The poetry of Matt Sedillo [https://www.mattsedillo.com/] -- a fearless, challenging and at times even confrontational blend of humor, history and political theory -- is at times a shot in the arm of pure revolutionary adrenaline. It also is a sobering call for the fundamental restructuring of society in the interest of people not profits. Passionate, analytical, humorous and above all sincere, Ma...

Synthetic herbicides often contain carcinogenic glyphosate and are used largely to eradicate weeds for aesthetic purposes on college campuses and school grounds. Institutions such as these are notorious for utilizing chemicals that have been linked to a host of diseases including: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Parkinson’s, asthma, depression, anxiety, ADHD, cancer and leukemia. These deleterious health...

On this show we explore the world of Shelterwood Collective [http://www.shelterwoodcollective.org], a Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ-led community forest and retreat center that seeks to heal people and ecosystems through active stewardship and community engagement. Recently they took on the role of stewards for 900 acres of forest in Sonoma County, California, on Unceded Kashaya and Southern Pomo t...

Two countries in Latin America have had elections where after decades of US-influenced, multinational corporation dominant governments have lost to insurgent leftist candidates, Xiomara Castro in Honduras, and Gustavo Petro in Colombia. One other country in the Caribbean, Haiti, has faced the same sort of right-wing neoliberal interventionist governments, a recent example ending up with an assassi...

Native peoples have used the tool of fire as medicine. Fire was understood to be a spirit, a healer and sacred in its own right. Traditional Native controlled burning, called cultural fire, utilizes ancient agro-forestry practices, technology developed through time by the Karuk tribe and Indigenous Peoples around the world. Elizabeth Azzuz, Secretary of Cultural Fire Management Council, discusses...

Many people are aware of the Victory Gardens that were hallmarks of WWI and WWII, where people in the United States and in other countries were growing food at home to supplement rations, reduce pressure on the food supply and lift morale. We are in a similar, yet different moment now, having experienced food security and supply chain issues during the pandemic, the urgency of climate change as ev...

Unbeknownst to many, the United States is soon to be the largest exporter of oil and gas. With increased drilling and fracking in the Texas Permian Basin and multiple oil and gas pipelines headed for the Gulf of Mexico Coast, the neighboring communities are at the nexus of climate change disasters and community resistance. Port Arthur Texas is home base for the largest oil refinery in North Americ...

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association recently reported that half of the mainland U.S. is currently undergoing drought. The West is experiencing the worst megadrought in 1,200 years, the onset of which began some twenty years ago. Regardless of dire conditions, drought is not a fixed conclusion: it is a sign. A sign of imbalance in our relationships to soil and the water cycle. Drought re...

The truth about the US Indian boarding school policy has largely been written out of the history books. Started in the 1800s across the US and Canada, Indian Boarding schools were government-funded and often church-run. The goal? Forced assimilation of Native children into white society under the belief of “Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” which still contributes to how we see and treat Indigenous...

Lithium is essential to all battery technology currently in use and development worldwide. Due to the transition to renewable solar and wind energy and electrification of vehicles and homes to reduce fossil fuel dependency and address climate change, the appetite for lithium is growing exponentially. While touted as part of a clean and green technology, many are rightfully crying “greenwashing" in...

Devil's urine. That's what Dupont employees called PFAS. These toxic, human made forever chemicals are now in the blood of almost every human on the planet. They are found in drinking water around the world, even Antarctica. And they are used in a broad range of consumer products, like non-stick cookware, stain-resistant clothing, waterproof items, dental floss, and even medical masks. These are o...

Our times are demanding that we reconnect to Nature and the place where we live. Given the impacts of the sixth great extinction, it is our personal and collective responsibility to support the return of biodiversity and native habitat. The World Wildlife Fund recently announced that we are losing 10,000 species a year to extinction, primarily due to habitat loss. Despite this, the U.S. has turned...