Dirt Radio

In February this year, a 'flock' of seven Climate Guardians Angels blockaded a road leading to Santos’ Narrabri Gas Project in northern NSW. Involving the construction of 850 coal seam gas (CSG) wells in the Pilliga State Forest, the project has been deemed high risk for the flow of ground water catchment and farm production. And for their efforts to raise questions in a very public way about clim...

Modern elections, like the one on July 2, 2016 in Australia, increasingly draw attention to the influence of lobby groups, which have much riding on which party takes power. This week in the first part of Dirt Radio, George Rennie, researcher and writer on the growing sway of lobbyists in the political process and the workings of democracy talks about the lobbying strategies of the mining and foss...

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FZANZ) is the bi-national government agency that's supposed to keep a watchful and regulatory eye on the safety of what we eat. But they're not doing a very good job when new bio-technologies like nanoparticles in food and food packaging are involved. In part one of Dirt Radio this week, we hear from Jeremy Tager from the FoE's Emerging Tech Project to fin...

The federal election campaign drags on. Still several week to go to election day, and still only paltry commitments from the major political parties to confront climate change and the potential devastation looming for Australia. #KeepYourPromise is a social media based campaign working to put that commitment front and centre in the lead up to the election. Australia’s leaders must honour the promi...

This week we are going to talk about a great campaign for divestment. Not the banks or Super but for Universities. Yes Unis are investing in Fossil Fuel and a lot. The Fossil Free Unis Crew ran by students has been lobbying for years now and last week the first Big Victorian’s Uni just decided to divest. More should follow!! www.fossilfreemu.org  or facebookPat is today the Y2R spoke person. Y2R i...

Who is June Norman? the famous woman activist who protects our forests and land all around Australia. an Angel? a willing activist? a mother? or a concern woman? Listen to this brilliant life story hosted by Sam Castro.

For decades now, Australia has allowed dirty and damaging coal to flood out of the Port of Newcastle NSW, polluting surrounding communities and exporting climate pollution to the rest of the world. Yesterday was a great day of action in Newcastel, an unprecedented gathering of over 2000 people from all over Australia are met at the gateway of the worlds biggest coal port to draw a red line under t...

Between May 4- 15, a global wave of mass actions will target the world's most dangerous fossil fuel projects in order to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground. We hear about war refugees forced to abandon thier homes and way of life. If fossil fuels are not kept in the ground, climate refugees will be a common reality in the near future. This week on Dirt Radio, we hear from Ursula Rakova, director...

The planet is warming up and our coal Barons and friendly politians are loving it. A bunch of rascals are saying NO. We used lock on, tree seats, tripods, pipe locks but now the must to tackle the planet killers is the attack of a coal train. Sounds like a kick ass western movie but it’s true. Jim and 2 other activist have done it couple weeks ago and today we will learn how to do the same.

Today we will chat about environment, about coke, recycling and direct action. At 5am last Wednesday Laura from Greenpeace got into climbing gear and headed for Kings Cross in Sydney. Alongside six fellow volunteers, their plan was to drop a three-storey banner down one of the biggest billboards in Sydney, Coke’s mega-sign. I decided to get in touch to my friend Laura after I received an astonishi...

As the public outrage over the Fukushima nuclear meltdown recedes, nuclear industry proponents are reviving their plan for South Australia to be the world’s nuclear waste dump. Arguments in favour of nuclear waste storage in South Australia are well and truely on the table. The Royal Commission's interim report into the nuclear fuel cycle says there are valid economic and moral arguments for stora...

Friends of the Earth recently published test results showing that – contrary to the claims of our food regulator Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) – nano-materials are present in foods in Australia. They are widespread, untested, unapproved and unlabelled, despite us having laws that require novel food ingredients such as these to go through pre-market safety testing and approval. Take...

Today we talked about waste dump, but not a normal one. about a Nuclear waste dump. The Federal Government has a shortlist of six sites for the facility, which would house medium and low-level waste. The sites have been nominated by the landholder and the Government is consulting with neighbours and community members. But there's no sign of agreement!get in touch with ACE online, be part of the co...

While on a surf expedition to the tropical islands of Mentawai in Indonesia, filmmaker Rob Henry finds himself immersed between two starkly different local communities – an impoverished government-run settlement and a tribal people living traditionally and abundantly in the jungle. IEF aim is to help displaced indigenous peoples build a better future by supporting them in their development of educ...

Today on Dirt Radio the Bats Return to the Leard State forest, Phil is live at the gate of the Coal mine with 80 people to support the traditional owner, the Gomeroi, in the protection of their last sacred site. Follow the journey on the Front Line Action on Coal web site and follow the action on twitter #Gomeroi  /The famous #LetThemStay campaign and the inside of an action, the Highway banner dr...

This is a big day tomorrow for Foe and the Lock the Gate campaign. The 1st day of the Parliament in 2016. A great opportunity send a strong message to your MP. After years of campaigning to protect our renewable energy target and stop the invasion of CSG we know at a critical point of our campaign. I have Leigh Ewbank with me today, Leigh is the campaign coordinator for Yes 2 Renewable. He has bee...

In the early hours of January 25th, three citizen scientist surveyors from GECO, Goongerah Environment Centre Office, conducted a survey for Greater Gliders in old growth forest on the Errinundra Plateau. Logging machinery had just moved in and logging was about to commence. The survey was conducted to determine if the species was present in high enough densities to trigger legal protection. Fifte...

So much is going on in the early 2016! Quit Coal on front line is calling for a ban on Unconventional Gas in Victoria. Will they listen to the community? The Bats Return to save the Leard State forest at Maules Creek with FLAC.The Melbourne Mob is getting ready to hit the streets of the CBD during Invasion Day. Colin also launches his new rubric 'How to make trouble and Influence people' Short sto...

Reflections, by two campaigners who were there, on environmental activism over two weeks in Paris during COP21, the 2015 global climate summit, from a FoE perspective.

On Saturday, after 2 weeks of negotiation at the climate conference in Paris, about 190 countries around the world signed onto an agreement to work towards keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. It's being hailed as a history making moment, as a global turning point, in the fight against climate change. The Earth International's online multilingual radio service run by Friends of the Ea...

Brief summary of yesterday's fascist march in Melton and the counter rally, the reasons, the vibe, the numbers, the techniques. After a quick break we engaged the talk about the Climate Change summit in Paris. Fossil Fuel multinationals are in the tent and as usual opposing the real social and environemental change the planet needs. Stand Up for a better future, walk the streets on Friday 27th, 5....

We talked about the new Alliance formed at the Liverpool Plains between antimining groups like FLAC and 350.org, the local farming community and the traditional custodians, the Gomoroi people to resist the construction of a new dirty and inhumaine coal mine named Shenhua, check out the actions on www.landwaterfuture.org.au. We followed by the impact of Direct Action in protests with Nicola and Cou...

This week we talk to Mark Parshin about a new campaign, "Less Meat, Less Heat". He speaks about the meat industry in Australia and around the globle and the impact of eating meat on a daily basis on the climate. He also talks about the ways we can wean ourselves off a meat diet, and how this helps counteract global warming and our health.

Direct Action Melbourne is rebranding the Australian Minister for the Environement, Greg Hunt as the Minister for Coal after his reapproval of the gigantic, destructive, inhumane Carmichael Coal mine project in Queensland. Adani, the infamous Indian corporation is celabrating the victory of the Dark Side while 4 braves are locking on in Greg's office. This show is a prerocorded interview. Check ou...

George Bender was a farmer, part of the Queensland community. He spent his life resisting the bullying of the infamous Origin energy company who brought him to the extreme of giving his life away. As a tribute for his cause, we are playing a prerecorded interview we made in 2014 with John Fenton, a farmer from Wyoming in the USA who is currently fighting against  destructive fracking in his commun...