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When scientists speak up on climate change
Prof. Naomi Oreskes says that scientists are often reluctant to speak in public on contested issues, for fear that this will “politicize” their science and have a negative impact on their credibility. Herself an outspoken scientist on climate change she explored historical examples of scientists who have spoken up on issues of broad importance, including nuclear weaponry, ozone depletion and climate change. In this talk she addresses issues of professional risk versus a population’s need and right to know. Is there such a thing as an obligation to speak on issues that might not be understood or even recognized; and what may be the limits of what a scientist can accomplish.
Naomi Oreskes is Professor [ . . . ]
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In this part TWO of his talk Thierry presents a long list of actions that can be taken to keep the planet livable. He focuses on the so-called carbon budget. Since there is a clear understanding that rise in temperature and in emissions are directly related we can now define how much CO2 we may emit before we hit the danger point. If we do not stop fossil fuel burning we will warm the planet to up to 7 1/2 degrees by 2100 – which will be the end of life.
According to the brutal logic of climate change humans on this planet may only extract, process and use a small amount of the remaining coal oil and gas deposits in [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:01 — 19.9MB)
Dr. Aaron Thierry says that “recent events in the US illustrate just how widespread and influential climate denial has become; … with potentially catastrophic implications for all of us.” Aaron Thierry asks what we can do to better promote scientific understanding of this crucial issue. And this talk is his contribution.
The title card of Thierry’s presentation is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.: “There is such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action”.
Aaron Thierry received his PhD in Ecology from the University of Sheffield and researched the impacts of global warming on the carbon cycle in Arctic ecosystems. He teaches at Sheffield’s Department [ . . . ]
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This program explores the extraordinary gains in votes for the British Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, and the equally extraordinary and unexpected losses of the pro Brexit conservative party under Theresa May on June 8, 2017.
With brief clips from the BBC, Counterspin, and Naomi Klein on Democracy Now and a re-broadcast of a labor breakfast speech by Corbyn from a 2003 TUC Radio program, the following issues are raised:
What are the parallels between Bernie Sanders and Corbyn and the future of democratic socialism. How can a grassroots movement with youth involvement bring huge crowds and even electoral votes to candidates who were thought to be unelectable, often maligned or silenced in the media. What are the principles that ignite [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:59 — 19.9MB)
Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need
This is the conclusion of a one hour speech by Naomi Klein about her June 2017 book, No Is Not Enough. It was specifically written as response to what she describes as Donald Trump’s corporate political takeover.
In spite of her scathing criticism Naomi Klein writes with an empowering optimism: She says that “Trump is making the need for systemic change seem much more obvious and appealing. “The No to Trump, she says, may be what brings people into the streets, but the Yes keeps us together into the future.
Her new book, No Is Not Enough, shows how to define that YES and what she calls the resurgence of the utopian imagination. [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need
Naomi Klein says that a corporate political takeover got Donald Trump elected and now “An unprecedented number of people are becoming engaged in movements and politics.” She writes that the current rise in activism can resist his policies. However saying No is not enough. In this talk she explains that we have the opportunity to “build a different economy and a different relationship between humans and the natural world and between each other in community.” And she explains how we can arrive at relationships of reciprocity, regeneration and renewal.
Naomi Klein is internationally famous for having written several major analytical books, among them: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate (in 2014), [ . . . ]
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Includes excerpts of a 2016 speech by Dennis Kucinich
This is Part TWO of a celebration of the work of an extraordinary man, Stephen Zarlenga, author of the book The Lost Science of Money and founder of the American Monetary Institute. Stephen Zarlenga died on April 25, 2017.
I interviewed Zarlenga in May 2009 when the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007/08 had become obvious and his reform ideas were in demand.
Working with Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Zarlenga helped develop legislative language for a major reform of the Federal Reserve system.
In 2011 Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers introduced HR 2990, the N.E.E.D. Act, that stands for National Emergency Employment Defense.
The organization that Zarlenga built, the American Monetary Institute continues and the annual [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:58 — 19.9MB)
ARCHIVAL Solving the Financial Crisis by Monetary Reform
This program was first produced in May 2009 – then and now it is a celebration of the work of an extraordinary man, Stephen Zarlenga, author of the book The Lost Science of Money and founder of the American Monetary Institute. Stephen Zarlenga died on April 25, 2017.
In 2009 the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007/08 with mortgage fraud and predatory lending had become obvious, both in the misery they caused to ordinary people and in the scale of the financial bailout that the banks and the bankers received.
Many called for better regulation – but a few visionaries asked for fundamental change of the monetary system. Zarlenga was a leading voice among [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
Noam Chomsky spoke at the MIT Starr Forum on March 23, 2017 to the dual danger we are facing today – nuclear extinction and climate change. In a scathing indictment of the current administration Chomsky explained that we are not just sleepwalking into disaster but are purposefully racing to the precipice.
In this concluding segment Chomsky begins by covering climate science from recent publication, including sea level rise, CO2 emissions exceeding 400 ppm.
Chomsky also remembers his intensely personal experience of the beginning of the nuclear age and explains the Anthropocene as defined by the World Geological Society.
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has worked since 1955. And he is the author of [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
Within days of the public posting in early April 2017 of his one hour speech the downloads for YouTube alone exceeded 100,000. Noam Chomsky spoke with such critical passion and urgency that this talk should have the widest possible distribution – so TUC Radio will carry it as well. It is a combination of a no holds barred critique of the Trump administration on climate change and nuclear danger.
The reason why this March 23 speech has become so popular – I believe – is that it not only brings into focus the looming danger – that can sometimes feel overwhelming – but puts it into context of history, global justice, indigenous rebellion and equity.
Chomsky investigates the reasons for our failure [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
Here is the Question and Answer section following a talk by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe (in last week’s radio program). In his presentation at the Press Club in Washington DC on March 24, 2017, he had challenged the audience with his conclusion that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can no longer be achieved by the so-called two state solution. Instead, Pappe said the only resolution comes with one democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis with equal rights for both. And this radio program presents some of Ilan Pappe’s thoughts how this may become a reality.
And for those who do not want to see Palestinian rights discussed TUC offers – again – a disclaimer: “The views and opinions expressed in the [ . . . ]
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Podcast (file2): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
The program begins with a standard disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the following program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this radio station, its staff or board of directors.
I placed the disclaimer because content critical of the Israel/Palestine peace process is frequently criticized. Please give it an airing because the ideas expressed may help explain a situation that has led to decades of pain and bloodshed in the Middle East. And Professor Ilan Pappe is an extraordinary intellectual and historian.
Here is background on him and the organizers:
Ilan Pappe was born in Haifa and educated in Israel. He was a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa (1984–2007) and [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
This segment begins with an intriguing archival speech on the history of corporations that TUC Radio recorded in Washington DC. at the 1996 Teach-In organized by the International Forum on Globalization. The segment ends with two important projects Grossman worked on just before his death: A law to criminalize hydro-fracking and corporations as a class or group.
In the Preface to his 1993 pamphlet, Taking Care of Business, Richard Grossman wrote:
“Corporations cause harm every day. Why do their harms go unchecked? How can they dictate what we produce, how we work, what we eat, drink and breathe? How did a self-governing people let this come to pass? – Corporations were not supposed to reign in the United States.”
Richard died of cancer [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:59 — 19.9MB)
Ralph Nader called Richard Grossman the preeminent historian of corporations. In his writings and teaching Grossman warned us that unchecked corporate power would lead to the destruction of democracy. He said that the American revolution was fought less against the King but “against the crown corporations, the Hudsons Bay and East India Corporations.” And he believed that it is time to remember that fight and assert sovereignty of the people over corporations and the corporate state.
In this speech Grossman provocatively calls for dismantling “the thousand largest corporations off the face of the earth.”
Richard Grossman’s research showed him that in the original intent of American revolutionaries corporations did not have rights, they only had privileges, and only those that we the [ . . . ]
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Special for International Women’s Month
This is the conclusion of Dr. Riffat Hassan’s extraordinary feminist lecture on the story of Adam and Eve, a story that forms the basis for the oppression of women in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Plus my interview with her about her radical re-interpretation of the significance of Eve’s acceptance of the apple.
Dr. Riffat Hassan is a Muslim theologian from Pakistan who opposes the Islamic view of the inferiority of women. She says that since anti women legislation and custom are enacted in the name of theology, it is necessary to study the Koran and critique the source.
In the original text, says Hassan, women are neither inferior nor sinful. Adam is not a man’s name – it [ . . . ]
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:00 — 19.9MB)
