EcoJustice Radio

Susan V. Collins, President of Container Recycling Institute, speaks with host Jessica Aldridge about how California underwent a recent wave of redemption center closures (those places where consumers can drop off their recyclable beverage containers for cash). So what needs to happen to fix the California bottle bill? Container Recycling Institute: http://www.container-recycling.org/ Hosted by Je...

Water is life. Clean, safe, reliable, affordable, and the future security of water is nonnegotiable. Los Angeles, California currently imports a whopping 70% of their water. And getting that water to LA is the largest use of electricity in the state of CA. When water is not captured and utilized within the system, it traverses through the city and out to the ocean. In order to shape a strong water...

Hear the wise words of Tongva Elder, Grandmother Gloria Arellanes, as she shares the heritage of the Tongva people, who inhabited and stewarded the area referred to as the "Los Angeles basin" as well as the Southern Channel Islands. Grandmother Gloria offers her insights about the state of our world, youth, elderhood and the intergenerational cycle of learning, as well as how we might honor proper...

Hear from David Lamfrom, Director of California Desert and National Wildlife programs at the National Parks Conservation Association, who will discuss the particular challenges of protecting and preserving our national parks in the Anthropocene era, including this current stage of global industrialization. David recounts the impact of the government shutdown on wildlife in national parks, includin...

Jessica Aldridge speaks with Ayla Suhail, Climate Change and Livelihood Project Coordinator at PODA, Potohar Organisation of development and advocacy in Pakistan. She is a graduate of mathematics from Comsats University in Islamabad and is finishing her up masters in Geographical Information System. Her thesis is based on "Analyzing the impact of Plastic Waste on the Urban Climate." She is also a...

Carry Kim talks with Rev. Adelia Sandoval, the Spiritual Leader for the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians/Acjachemen Nation. The Acjachemen people are the indigenous people of Orange County in Southern California and have stewarded and inhabited this region for roughly 12,000 years. Adelia is also a Ceremonial Leader, Bear Dancer, Re-Burial Rites Ceremonialist, and Keeper of Songs she has been taugh...

Carry Kim speaks with Doug Lindamood, from SonRise Ranch in San Diego County, California. He and his family own and operate this pasture based livestock operation dedicated to changing industrial, factory farming into a local, sustainable, integrity, food movement through education and outreach one family at a time. According to SonRise Ranch, Management Intensive Grazing, regenerative agriculture...

In the spring of 2019, the Sunrise Movement, building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across the US, put on the Road To A Green New Deal Tour, visiting eight cities across the US to share what a Green New Deal would look like in different communities as well as spotlighting local politicians and organizers throughout the country. A Green New Deal would address the...

On this episode, Mark Morris speaks with Madeline Merritt, Core Organizer for Public Bank LA and Member of California Public Banking Alliance. She speaks about the campaign supporting AB 857, The Public Banking Act, in an unprecedented partnership between the grassroots and lawmakers. She is a water protector and community organizer who seeks to transform global systems to put the long term intere...

Over the past few years, there has been significant growth in US politics of women candidates (especially women of color) and for many this being their first run for office. As of today, there exists a record number of women in congress and more young women and women of color than ever in US History. On this show, Jessica Aldridge talks with Aura Vasquez, Environmental and Social Justice organizer...

Los Angeles is the nation’s garment production capital and the city’s second largest manufacturing sector, yet workers face injustice, usually associated with the developing world, right here in one of the largest cities in the United States. Unbeknownst to most, sweatshops are a reality in Los Angeles, California and are directly tied to some of the most notable and loved brands. However, account...

When we get dressed in the morning, most of us don’t consider the environmental costs and human rights issues that may be attached to the clothing on our bodies. Jessica Aldridge interviews two women who have made it their business to not only consider how to clean up the global fashion industry, advocating for environmentally-supportive and equitable solutions to water pollution, pesticides, micr...

From the Personal Carbon Footprint to a Green New Deal Massive climate disruption continues to strike all over the world, one disaster after another, droughts, wildfires, typhoons, mega-floods, with glaciers melting and methane escaping from deep under the permafrost. The UN IPCC said we have 12 more years to stabilize greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to avoid runaway climate change. We nee...

Join Stephanie Mushrush and Carrie "Cc" Curley Strong as they share about the Apache Stronghold spiritual movement to Save Oak Flat (Chi'chil Bildagoteel). Apache Stronghold, led by Wendsler Nosie, Sr. for the last decade, is a spiritual movement to protect the Apache Way of life: their sacred sites and cultural and spiritual heritage. The movement is committed to preventing Resolution Copper, a f...

Erik Ohlsen is the director of the Permaculture Skills Center, a vocational training school that offers advanced education in ecological design, landscaping, farming, and land stewardship. Creator of the the Eco-Landscape Mastery School online training program, Erik is also founder of Permaculture Artisans which specializes in design and installation of ecological landscapes and farms throughout C...

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL or Rocketdyne), north of Los Angeles, burned in the November 2018 Woolsey Fire, threatening toxic exposures from contaminated dust, smoke, ash, and soil. In the 1940s, SSFL with its 10 experimental nuclear reactors was developed for research and weapons testing. In 1959, it suffered an uncontained partial meltdown of at least one sodium reactor referred to b...

Ku Kia'i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites, Waters and Indigenous Legacies Worldwide Part 2 Kumu Mikilani provides an update on the status of Mauna Kea and the inspired movement to stop the construction of the 30-meter TMT telescope, anticipated to be the Northern Hemisphere's singular largest telescope sponsored by CalTech, University of California and the countries of India,...

Part 1 of 2 Ku Kia'i Mauna: Kumu Mikilani Young discusses with Carry Kim from EcoJustice Radio about the proposed, highly controversial 30-meter TMT telescope which would be built atop "ceded" conservation lands on Mauna Kea, considered the most sacred mountain for native Hawaiians or Kanaka Ma'oli. The TMT telescope would be the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere and is being spearheade...

As part of the incessant need for what some people call “growth” we inevitably destroy resources, especially when that “growth” happens to be sprawling land development. Is this type of growth necessary? Will it provide real housing opportunities to those most in need? However, when a development project does not make common sense, when it invades ecological integrity, destroys irreplaceable resou...

Carry Kim from EcoJustice Radio talks with Lydia Ponce, a Mayo-Quechua Indigenous activist, member of AIM (American Indian Movement), and Co-Director of Idle No More SoCal. She also works as SoCal 350 Engagement Director. Lydia will share updates about two controversial tar sands pipelines originating out of Alberta, Canada: TransCanada's Keystone XL and Enbridge's Line 3. Both projects pose numer...

How California Legislation is Driving New Standards Hosted by Jessica Aldridge of Adventures in Waste and Co-founder of SoCal 350 Our guest today, Nick Lapis Director of Advocacy of for Californians Against Waste (CAW) is advocating at the state and local levels to create, promote, and implement the standards and policies necessary for waste reduction and recycling. Since joining CAW in 2007, Nick...

Young people are mobilizing on climate change as the generation that will inherit its various outcomes and crises. They organized a national day of action called “This is Zero Hour” which seeks to amplify young voices who are working on environmental issues in their communities. Episode Hosted by Mark Morris with guests Arielle Cohen, Gavin Pierce, and Ryanne Mena. The idea for a youth climate mar...

Since it closed for safety violations in 2012, the dangers of San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS) between Orange County and San Diego have only continued to loom. Carry Kim from EcoJustice Radio interviews Charles Langley, Executive Director of Public Watchdogs & esteemed Board Member, Nina Babiarz. Public Watchdogs independently monitors energy and infrastructure regulatory agencies in...

How do we confront the swirling gyres of plastic pollution dumped into our oceans? In this show, we examine the social and environmental implications of wasted resources, and follow two interrelated approaches to solving the problem from an indigenous woman doing exemplary work in New Zealand and an LA-based plastics pollution fighter. Our guests include Tina Ngata, a Ngati Porou wāhine and mother...

Why is incineration in direct opposition with Zero Waste and social and environmental justice? Hear from local and international groups working together to fight this beastly issue. Per the internationally recognized definition of Zero Waste, products should be managed in a way that avoids and eliminates toxicity, conserves resources and does not burn nor bury them. It also states that any and all...