Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org

Radio Show #30, October 18, 2020 . Did you know that Section 106.3 of the California Water Code states that “every human being has the right to safe, clean,  affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption,  cooking, and sanitary purposes.” Host Ronnie Lipschutz talks with Mayra  Hernandez, a community organizer at the Community Water Center in Watsonville, about saf...

Radio Show #28, September 20, 2020.  Host Ronnie Lipschutz welcomes his guests, Mireya Gomez-Contreras and  Ana Rasmussen, codirectors of Esperanza Community Farms.  Esperanza  Community Farms is a system-changing, sustainable community agriculture  project focused entirely and directly on increasing food security and  good health among low-income families from under-...

Sustainability Now! Show #27, September 6, 2020, Accessory Dwelling Units in Our Backyards : Host Ronnie Lipschutz and his guest, Santa Cruz architect Mark Primack , talk about how we might address the California housing crisis through construction of accessory dwelling units .  Primack has lived and worked in Santa Cruz since the late 1970s, served on the City Council, written Divisible Citi...

Sustainability Now! #24, July 26, 2020 . Environmental Art in Built & Natural Landscapes, with Marisha Farnsworth . “Environmental artists seek to investigate our human relationship with the environment through embedding their artistic practice within it” (“ The Art Story ”). Learn about the practice of environmental art on Sustainability Now! in this conversation between host Ronnie Lipschutz...

Sustainability Now #23 , July 12, 2020, with Len Beyea, addresses sustainable community planning in Santa Cruz and cities in general. Len is a semi-retired energy engineer and commissioning agent, former land-use planner, musician, Interfaith Minister, gardener, dancer, political and cultural commentator. He is host of the Wednesday broadcast of Talk of the Bay on KSQD and shares hosting of Border...

Sustainability Now! #22 , June 28, 2020, with Kalina Browne, 2019-20 RAY Diversity Fellow at the Ocean Conservancy to learn about Climate Change and Black Lives Mattering on the California Coast.  Browne grew up on the Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines. She holds a B.S. in Environmental Geoscience from the University of Buffalo . She has worked with the Caribbean Community Cli...

Sustainability Now! #21, June 14, 2020, with Jo Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Coastside Land Trust in Half Moon Bay . Jo is a graduate of College Eight (aka, Rachel Carson College) at UC Santa Cruz and was provost’s assistant there for several years during the past decade.  She has served on several non-profit boards, including the San Francisco Zoological Society and Friends of West...

May 31, 2020, “ The Wheels on the Bus” Getting ‘Round the City , with Rick Longinotti , a member of and spokesperson for the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation , a “group of volunteers dedicated to making Santa Cruz County a place where everyone in our diverse community can access their needs and activities in a way that is safe, affordable, convenient and sustainable for future generations.”...

Sustainability Now!, May 17, 2020, Struggling to Survive: Binational Farmworkers on the Central Coast , with Dr. Ann Lopez , Founder and Director of the Center for Farmworker Families in Watsonville, California.  Lopez is emerita professor at San Jose City College, and holds degrees in biology and a PhD in Environmental Studies from UC Santa Cruz. The Center works with binational farmworkers...

Sustainability Now! May 3, 2020, Protecting Sacred Lands, with Valentin Lopez, Chair of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band of the Costanoan/Ohlone Indians and President of the Amah Mutsun Land Trust .  The Amah Mutsun are descendants of the more than 20 politically distinct indigenous peoples of the territories ranging from Año Nuevo to the greater Monterey Bay area. We talked about the history of t...

Sustainability Now! April 19, 2020, By the Beautiful Sea, with Rachel Kippen , Executive Director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey and a columnist for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Rachel was previously Director of Programs at Save Our Shores. She has also worked as a marine science educator, a kayak guide and a whale tour naturalist. She holds two degrees in Environmental Studies. She grew up on two islands, on...

Sustainability Now! March 22, 2020, No Place Like Home , with UCSC Sociology Professor Steve McKay , director of the UCSC Center for Labor Studies and codirector, with Professor Miriam Greenberg , of “No Place Like Home,” a community-initiated, student-engaged research project on the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz County.

Sustainability Now! March 8, 2020, Auto-Free Living in Hayward? with Dr. Sherman Lewis , Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Cal State East Bay, to talk about a proposal for Bayview Village , a car-free development in a disused quarry in Hayward and urban sustainability more generally.

Sustainability Now! February 23, 2020, Climate Justice in the Pajaro Valley, with Nancy Faulstich, Director of Regeneración , a non-profit focused on climate and social justice in Watsonville, California and the Pajaro Valley, Tamela Harkins, Pajaro Valley High School English Teacher, and three members– Itzel Sanchez, Luke Zamora and Reuben Garcia–of La Vida Verde , a student environmental club at...

Sustainability Now! February 9, 2020, Caring for the Prairie , with Professor Jenny Reardon of the UCSC Sociology Department talks about  “Caring for the Prairie,” a “project involving biking through the prairies and small towns of Kansas, designed to develop embodied knowledge of the land and to find out more about attitudes towards contemporary US politics from the denizens of the prairies....

Sustainability Now!, January 26, 2020, A Conversation with Extinction Rebellion, with members of Extinction Rebellion in Monterey and Santa Cruz : Vanessa Mekarski, Dwight Mitchell, Jennifer Brugman and Magali Morales. Extinction Rebellion is a leaderless, decentralised, international and apolitical network using non-violent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justl...

Sustainability Now! January 12, 2020, Is Bioethanol the Answer? with David Blume , CEO & Director of Research and Development at Blume Distillation , and author of Alcohol Can be a Gas , to talk about his distillation & permaculture operation just outside of Watsonville.

Sustainability Now! December 15, 2019 , Can Solar Energy Provide a Basic Income for Everyone in the World? with  Robert Stayton , author of Power Shift: From Fossil Energy to Dynamic Solar Power and Solar Dividends: How Solar Energy Can Generate a Basic Income for Everyone on Earth discusses his proposal to give everyone on Earth 10 kilowatts of solar PV panels. You can request a free e-book...

Sustainability Now! November 17, 2019, Down on the Farm in Santa Cruz, with Nina Vukecevic, Farm Manager at Common Roots Farm in Santa Cruz, which provides disabled adults with access to agriculture. You can find out more about urban agriculture here .

Sustainability Now! November 3, 2019, Zero Waste Living? with Liz McDade, who runs the “ No Trace Shop ,” an online business dedicated to providing customers with a “sustainable lifestyle.”

Sustainability Now! October 20, 2019 , Where the Mountain Lions Are, with Professor Chris Wilmers , Department of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, talking about mountain lions, talking about their habits, lairs and ecology.

Sustainability Now! September 22, 2019, Where Does Your Bottle Go?, with Tim Goncharoff, Zero Waste Programs Manager for Santa Cruz County discussing garbage, recycling and all that.

Sustainability Now! September 8, 2019. Green Architectural Design , with Thomas Rettenwender, Principal Architect at Ecologic Design Lab in Carmel, California talking about green building.

Sustainability Now! August 25, 2019, Climate Action Now! , with Dr. Tiffany Wise-West , Sustainability & Climate Action Manager for the City of Santa Cruz. For more information, see the City’s Climate Action Program web site.