Author Archives: Maria

Smokescreen – Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate – Chad Hanson

Dr. Chad Hanson is the Director of the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute. As Research Ecologist he is part of a growing movement of scientists and researchers who are calling into question many of the practices and policies of logging, not just the so-called fire suppression. Much of current research is presented in his 2021 book Smokescreen – Debunking Wildfire Myths to Save Our Forests and Our Climate. And the key themes are listed in his talk.
Hanson had a Zoom meeting in September 2021 with the Dogwood Alliance, a forest protection nonprofit based in Asheville, North Carolina – and prior guest on TUC Radio.
Rita Frost of the Dogwood Alliance moderated the meeting. The one hour talk and conversation [ . . . ]

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Joanna Macy: A Wiser, Braver World – Transition to a life sustaining culture

A revolution in the magnitude and scope of the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago The Great Turning, Awakened Action Symposium. On the Summer Solstice of 2020 Joanna Macy, from her home in Berkeley, spoke at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Buddhist monastery had called for Awakened Action and invited Women Leaders to Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Covid Pandemic.
Joanna Macy is an eco-philosopher and a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Now in her very early nineties she has for decades helped transform despair and apathy into constructive change. As teacher, writer of eight books and antinuclear activist she has created frameworks for personal and social change. Joanna Macy [ . . . ]

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Joanna Macy: A Wiser, Braver World – Transition to a life sustaining culture

A revolution in the magnitude and scope of the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago The Great Turning, Awakened Action Symposium. On the Summer Solstice of 2020 Joanna Macy, from her home in Berkeley, spoke at the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Buddhist monastery had called for Awakened Action and invited Women Leaders to Speak to Race, Poverty, Climate, and the Covid Pandemic.
Joanna Macy is an eco-philosopher and a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Now in her very early nineties she has for decades helped transform despair and apathy into constructive change. As teacher, writer of eight books and antinuclear activist she has created frameworks for personal and social change. Joanna Macy [ . . . ]

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Welfare Ranching and Point Reyes National Seashore

George Wuerthner’s historic exposé of the destruction of the American West by cattle grazing (Archive) – And the shocking decision by the National Park Service in September 2021 to continue and even expand beef and dairy cattle grazing in the popular Seashore – just north of San Francisco on the unceded land of the Coast Miwok.
Cattle grazing should have ended there in the late 1980s. The area had become a National Park by an act of Congress in 1962 and the existing ranches were bought out at market rate with taxpayer funds. The ranchers were given 25 years to find new land and vacate. Instead they expanded the herds, and used political clout in Senate and Congress to [ . . . ]

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Welfare Ranching and Point Reyes National Seashore

George Wuerthner’s historic exposé of the destruction of the American West by cattle grazing (Archive) – And the shocking decision by the National Park Service in September 2021 to continue and even expand beef and dairy cattle grazing in the popular Seashore – just north of San Francisco on the unceded land of the Coast Miwok.
Cattle grazing should have ended there in the late 1980s. The area had become a National Park by an act of Congress in 1962 and the existing ranches were bought out at market rate with taxpayer funds. The ranchers were given 25 years to find new land and vacate. Instead they expanded the herds, and used political clout in Senate and Congress to [ . . . ]

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Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? – Professor William Rees

Does our modern techno-industrial society destroy the biophysical basis of our existence? Bill Rees is a population ecologist, ecological economist, and Professor Emeritus of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning.
He asks the question why humanity has not responded, in over 50 years, to warnings about rising greenhouse gases and heat, over exploitation of oceans, forests, soils and water; and species extinction.
Prof. Bill Rees also challenges the over-optimistic ”problem solvers” on the claim, in their version of the Green New Deal, that if we replace oil with solar we can continue living much as we do today – in an economy based on growth and consumption.
Bill Rees had been invited by the Institute on Religion in an Age [ . . . ]

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Will Modern Civilization be the Death of Us? – Professor William Rees

Does our modern techno-industrial society destroy the biophysical basis of our existence? Bill Rees is a population ecologist, ecological economist, and Professor Emeritus of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning.
He asks the question why humanity has not responded, in over 50 years, to warnings about rising greenhouse gases and heat, over exploitation of oceans, forests, soils and water; and species extinction.
Prof. Bill Rees also challenges the over-optimistic ”problem solvers” on the claim, in their version of the Green New Deal, that if we replace oil with solar we can continue living much as we do today – in an economy based on growth and consumption.
Bill Rees had been invited by the Institute on Religion in an Age [ . . . ]

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Overshoot, the Energy Conundrum and Climate Change – Prof. Bill Rees

Prof. Rees first defined “Ecological Footprint” and “Overshoot” My colleague Alex Smith, host of Radio Ecoshock, put out a provocative statement on his weekly radio program. He announced: Who can question the Green New Deal and holy solar power? Guest Megan Seibert and super-scientist Bill Rees just published a scathing report. They say it’s time to shrink or die.” end quote. I was intrigued by the provocation and downloaded the 19 page paper – and an inspiring talk by Professor Bill Rees and will present excerpts of both on this program.
William Rees is a bio-ecologist, ecological economist, former Director and Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. Rees is perhaps best [ . . . ]

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Overshoot, the Energy Conundrum and Climate Change – Prof. Bill Rees

Prof. Rees first defined “Ecological Footprint” and “Overshoot” My colleague Alex Smith, host of Radio Ecoshock, put out a provocative statement on his weekly radio program. He announced: Who can question the Green New Deal and holy solar power? Guest Megan Seibert and super-scientist Bill Rees just published a scathing report. They say it’s time to shrink or die.” end quote. I was intrigued by the provocation and downloaded the 19 page paper – and an inspiring talk by Professor Bill Rees and will present excerpts of both on this program.
William Rees is a bio-ecologist, ecological economist, former Director and Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. Rees is perhaps best [ . . . ]

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Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism has become Techno-Feudalism

The former Greek Finance Minister in conversation with Dr Marc Lamont Hill on Al Jazeera, February, 2021 Techno-Feudalism is a term that’s in the news these days. It may mean control of the data by the few FAANG companies – that’s Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix; and Alphabet – formerly known as Google. Techno-Feudalism also applies to the dominance of finance and banking over state institutions – driving huge wealth inequalities.
Yanis Varoufakis is the former finance minister of Greece and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens. He is cofounder of the Democracy in Europe Movement DiEM25. That’s a pan-European political movement founded in 2016 by a group of Europeans, including philosophers and activists. They see [ . . . ]

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Yanis Varoufakis: Capitalism has become Techno-Feudalism

The former Greek Finance Minister in conversation with Dr Marc Lamont Hill on Al Jazeera, February, 2021 Techno-Feudalism is a term that’s in the news these days. It may mean control of the data by the few FAANG companies – that’s Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix; and Alphabet – formerly known as Google. Techno-Feudalism also applies to the dominance of finance and banking over state institutions – driving huge wealth inequalities.
Yanis Varoufakis is the former finance minister of Greece and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens. He is cofounder of the Democracy in Europe Movement DiEM25. That’s a pan-European political movement founded in 2016 by a group of Europeans, including philosophers and activists. They see [ . . . ]

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Firestorm, How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future from Radio Ecoshock

Alex Smith interviewed Ed Struzik on the recent out of control firestorms and how wetlands can limit their spread This extraordinary conversation between Alex Smith and Ed Struzik was broadcast on August 18, 2021, on the weekly one-hour radio show Ecoshock.
Struzik is a science journalist and Fellow at Queens University, Canada. In his book FIRESTORM he visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as avoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly.
Alex Smith also asks about Struzik’s October 2021 book SWAMPLANDS and [ . . . ]

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Firestorm, How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future from Radio Ecoshock

Alex Smith interviewed Ed Struzik on the recent out of control firestorms and how wetlands can limit their spread This extraordinary conversation between Alex Smith and Ed Struzik was broadcast on August 18, 2021, on the weekly one-hour radio show Ecoshock.
Struzik is a science journalist and Fellow at Queens University, Canada. In his book FIRESTORM he visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as avoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly.
Alex Smith also asks about Struzik’s October 2021 book SWAMPLANDS and the struggle [ . . . ]

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Nuclear Weapons in Space and Ground Stations for War in Space

Radio based on films produced by Will Griffin for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space In May and June 2021 Will Griffin released two short films on the recent expansion of nuclear power into Space and on the secrecy surrounding the upgrade of a US radar installation on Norwegian soil.
These two short films are posted on the the website of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. That’s an international organization founded in 1992 with an unbroken record of education and activism on a rarely covered topic, the Weaponization of Space.
For the first film, published on May 6, 2021, Will Griffin writes in his summary: The Pentagon and multinational corporations are privatizing [ . . . ]

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Nuclear Weapons in Space and Ground Stations for War in Space

Radio based on films produced by Will Griffin for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space In May and June 2021 Will Griffin released two short films on the recent expansion of nuclear power into Space and on the secrecy surrounding the upgrade of a US radar installation on Norwegian soil.
These two short films are posted on the the website of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. That’s an international organization founded in 1992 with an unbroken record of education and activism on a rarely covered topic, the Weaponization of Space.
For the first film, published on May 6, 2021, Will Griffin writes in his summary: The Pentagon and multinational corporations are privatizing [ . . . ]

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