Breaking Green

Send us Fan Mail Photo: Orin Langelle / Global Justice Ecology Project UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.   It is tasked with the promotion of global peace and security through international cooperation in education, science, culture, and information. Yet recent reporting by Survival International focuses on how UNESCO has used its influence to support...

Send us Fan Mail In the face of new studies showing increased dangers of exposure to radiation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing the repeal of a 50 year old safety regulation known "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" or ALARA. This is being done to fast track small modular reactors (SMRs). A proposed new nuclear technology, SMRs are seen as a possible answer to the energy bot...

Send us Fan Mail We talk with Kaleb Lay from Oregon Rural Action about how people living in a rural Oregon “sacrifice zone” end up with poisoned well water, and a widening wealth gap. We explore environmentalist claims that industrial farming, combined with a rapid build-out of Amazon data centers is compounding deadly nitrate contamination while communities fight for testing, transparency, and ac...

Send us Fan Mail Some US service members say they were told a war with Iran wouldn’t just be strategic—it would be biblical. According to complaints gathered by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, certain US commanders allegedly framed the conflict as part of God’s plan: a step toward Armageddon and the return of Jesus. If true, that raises urgent questions about how religious ideology may...

Send us Fan Mail We trace how the Great Plains still lives with Dust Bowl forces as Dr. Joshua Anderson links soil loss, monoculture, and rural decline to a culture that no longer asks if we are growing food. Caregiving for his father with MS shapes a vision to “restory” land and rebuild soil health through minimal disturbance, living roots, diversity, and cover. Joshua T. Anderson is a writer and...

Send us Fan Mail We talk with Oglala Lakota poet and organizer Mark K. Tilson about the ICE surge in Minneapolis, the killing of Renee Good, and how neighbors are building a decentralized resistance. The conversation traces lawless tactics, historical patterns, and the courage that grows when people act together. • collapse of civic life in Minneapolis under raids and fear  • judicial warrants ver...

Send us Fan Mail A celebrated naturalist’s Maine hillside holds thousands of wild American chestnuts thriving across three generations, challenging the claim that the species cannot return without genetic engineering. We explore the history of blight, restoration strategies, climate shifts, and why evidence from the field matters. • origins of the blight and early containment attempts • limits of...

Send us Fan Mail Despite escalating climate disasters across the Global North - from deadly floods in Germany to devastating hurricanes in the United States - we're witnessing alarming rightward shifts instead of rational policy responses.  Countries experiencing climate catastrophes also often elect their most conservative governments shortly afterward, which suggests our traditional assumpt...

Send us Fan Mail The Marshall Islands face dual threats from the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing and the advancing impacts of climate change, creating an urgent struggle for justice and survival. On this episode of Breaking Green we are going to speak with Shem Livai. Shem Livai is a Director at Marshalls Energy Company in the Marshall Islands. He is a Ph. D. candidate in Creative Leadership for In...

Send us Fan Mail Panganga Pungowiyi, an Indigenous mother and climate geoengineering organizer from Sibokuk in the Dena'ina Islands, shares her community's historical trauma and resistance against experimental climate technologies deployed without consent. Her powerful testimony reveals how colonial patterns of exploitation continue today through geoengineering experiments that ignore In...

Send us Fan Mail The Mapuche people of Chile are fighting to reclaim ancestral lands taken over by vast industrial eucalyptus and pine plantations established during the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s. Their struggle goes beyond land ownership—it's about reclaiming culture, spirituality, language, and food sovereignty while facing criminalization under Chile's new "usurpation la...

Send us Fan Mail We explore the myths and realities of space colonization and assess whether humans can survive long-term deep space travel. In this episode, author Dennis Meredith explains why we might need to rethink our ambitions and focus on protecting our planet instead. • Dissecting the notion of humanity becoming a multi-planet species  • Highlighting the physical impacts of space travel on...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when justice collides with government secrecy? We invite you to join our conversation with attorney Michael Kuzma as we untangle the complex case of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist imprisoned for nearly five decades. Despite clear evidence of trial irregularities, withheld FBI documents, and a ballistics report proving Peltier's innocence, he was deni...

Send us Fan Mail What is artificial intelligence and how are some corporate interests seeking to hand over the development of genetically engineered organisms to it? Join us as we unpack this question with Jim Thomas, an activist and researcher who challenges the common misconceptions about artificial intelligence. We delve into the historical context of the Luddites and connect their resistance t...

Send us Fan Mail What if conservation efforts meant to protect our planet were actually causing significant harm to the very people who have safeguarded these lands for generations?  On this episode of Breaking Green, we speak with founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, Anuradha Mittal. Anuradha is an internationally renowned expert on issues of human rights, agriculture, develop...

Send us Fan Mail Can converting petroleum refineries into renewable diesel production truly serve as a green alternative, or is it merely greenwashing? Join us this week on Breaking Green as we tackle this controversial issue with Gary Hughes from Biofuelwatch. Gary reveals the significant risks and threats posed by industrial bioenergy projects, including their impacts on land, forests, ecosystem...

Send us Fan Mail On January 18th of last year, a land defender protesting the razing of an urban forest to build a police training mega complex known as COP City was killed by a hail of bullets fired by police in Atlanta Georgia.  Authorities claim the had fired a weapon at police, but there is strong forensic evidence that the protester was seated with hands up and had not fired a weapon. Many ot...

Send us Fan Mail Christopher Nolan's movie Oppenheimer captured the imagination of the nation as it dramatized the super-secret Manhattan Project that was responsible for creating the first atomic bomb. But what about the legacy of radioactive waste that the US weapons Development Program left across the United States? According to victims whose diseases were caused by exposure to US weapons...

Send us Fan Mail When the salmon numbers in the Klamath River dwindled, it wasn't just a loss of wildlife, it was a piece of Brook Thompson's heritage slipping away. Our latest episode of Breaking Green features Brook, a Yurok and Karuk Native American, water resource engineer, and PhD student, who unravels the deep ties between her tribe's culture and the river's salmon. Disco...

Send us Fan Mail Terrible forest fires that are the result of eucalyptus plantations are becoming an increasing threat. Known as green deserts, these monoculture eucalyptus tree plantations are becoming more numerous as they are built to feed ever larger pulp and paper mills. They sapwater from the environment and destroy biodiversity. But there are those who are fighting the spread of this invasi...

Send us Fan Mail The American Chestnut Foundation has long supported a controversial plan to release genetically engineered chestnut trees into the wild.  The Tree was being developed by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).  But now poor performance in field trials and the revelation that researchers had even been field testing the wrong tree p...

Send us Fan Mail On February 3rd 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals derailed. It was later set on fire in part to clear the tracks. Residents have reported illnesses that they believe are the result of exposure to the chemicals. Now complaints are growing that the government’s and EPA’s response has failed them. An independent testing expert who has...

Send us Fan Mail The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), was held from November 30 to December 12 2023 in Dubai.  Described by some as the "Blood Carbon COP", COP 28 paved the way for a massive expansion of carbon credits. The carbon credit market is disastrous for Indigenous Peoples and represents a major new way for governments, corporations and conservation NGOs to...

Send us Fan Mail Soon the attention of many environmentalists will be focused on the most recent UN Climate Conference in Dubai. But this in the 28th such conference and the climate crisis continues to worsen. What if Climate Collapse is inevitable? In this episode of Breaking Green we will talk with long-time global and climate justice activist Dr. Tadzio Mueller. Dr. Mueller is a political scien...

Send us Fan Mail The Pruitt Igoe housing complex in St. Louis that was built in the 1950s and infamously demolished in the 1970s has been touted by many as a cautionary tale against public housing projects. But its history is complex. In 2012 it was reported that Pruitt Igoe was in a region targeted by the Military for secret tests that were part of a radiological weapons development program. Acco...