The Climate Minute

Rachel Carson’s 110th birthday will be this May. Her book “Silent Spring” was landmark of environmental awareness. This spring will be a great moment to reflect on Carson’s life and impact. We check in with Ellie Goldberg, for whom Carson is a hero. In 1989 Ellie Goldberg founded www.healthy-kids.info, a consulting service promoting health security and educational equity for students with asthma and other chronic health conditions. Her goal was to help educators, health professionals, community officials, organizations, policy makers and parents work together to improve policies and practices so that schools are safe for children's healthy development. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

If a Federal budget is a vision of the future then the administration’s current proposal calls for a climate hellscape populated by hungry elders in a hollowed out democracy. We can push back by voting and demanding our Members of Congress reject this insulting document. Keep in mind that the green future is growing even now, with new technology allowing ever more local energy production and exchange. Listen in. Download Enhanced Podcast

MCAN’s Local Environmental Action Conference was held on March 5th at Northeastern University. Kandi Mossett was the morning keynote speaker, and presented a powerful image of the destruction fracking has wreaked damage on Native American Communities. For her part, Lois Gibbs was living a normal life in upstate New York until “she discovered that her neighborhood sat atop a toxic dump containing 21,000 tons of buried chemical waste, the infamous Love Canal.” In one of the breakout sessions, Carol Oldham discussed MCAN’s offering to help activist begin the process of finding out where they can help their towns become greener. Listen in! Download Enhanced Podcast

In a statement that can only be considered an insult to the very concept of truth and scientific integrity, Scott Pruitt, the new leader of the EPA, said the following about carbon dioxide “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” This denial of the scientific output of the EPA, based on his personal opinion and narrow ideology is an outrage. His extreme views may influence decisions on California’s right to pursue green initiatives. Scott Pruitt will only be brought to heel by political pressure from Congress, who will themselves only respond to direct communication from their constituents. Check the reading list to find your Member of Congress. A short phone call is all it takes. Download Enhanced Podcast

The Paris Agreement, flawed and fragile as it is, represents the world’s best hope of addressing global warming. While the COTUS (Cheeto of the US) railed against it on the campaign trail, there appears to be an ongoing discussion about whether the US should leave the agreement. It seems “Camp of the Saints Steve Bannon” and “Arctic Rex Tillerson” disagree on the wisdom of this. How much fun would that be to watch? Listen in! Because we recognize the necessity of personal accountability for our actions, because we accept responsibility for building a durable future and because we believe it is our patriotic duty as citizens to speak out, we must insist that the United States put a price on carbon. Thanks for listening. …Ted McIntyre Download Enhanced Podcast

Our new Attorney General’s admission that he spoke with the Russian ambassador became a climate issue once Ukraine economic sanctions ‘somehow came up’ in the conversation. Why? The Obama era sanctions were a punishment for invading Ukraine, and effectively blocked the development of Russian arctic oil by- wait for it- Rex Tillerson’s Exxon. Putin’s desire for the $500B deal was a clear possible motive for hacking our election. On the other hand, Darryl Issa’s new found enthusiasm for protecting the climate is a good example in how to pressure your Member of Congress. Listen in. Download Enhanced Podcast

The wave of anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-climate sentiment, not to the mention raw racism that is being fed by our new administration, demands that we stand together. Climate Hawks need to fight the “Neo-Know-Nothing” policies of Trumpism on every front. One way to do that is right at home, by setting up a ‘green fuel’ standard to minimize the impact that burning fossil fuels for transport. Listen in as we discuss. Download Enhanced Podcast

Adaptation and mitigation are common terms in climate discussions, but they come into sharp focus when a massive seawall is proposed for Boston Harbor. Is it wise? Can we make the Koch brothers pay for it? What about the folks on the other side of the seawall, be they in Provincetown or Bangladesh? Is it better to spend that money mitigating carbon pollution? You’ll have to come up with your own answer since Scott Pruitt, the new head of EPA, seems to have little concern for the environment he swears to protect. Listen in. Download Enhanced Podcast

Adaptation and mitigation are common terms in climate discussions, but they come into sharp focus when a massive seawall is proposed for Boston Harbor. Is it wise? Can we make the Koch brothers pay for it? What about the folks on the other side of the seawall, be they in Provincetown or Bangladesh? Is it better to spend that money mitigating carbon pollution? You’ll have to come up with your own answer since Scott Pruitt, the new head of EPA, seems to have little concern for the environment he swears to protect. Listen in. Download Enhanced Podcast

The election of DJT represents a break point in American history, challenging all the principles and virtues that we presume to hold. Given the disruption caused by our new politics, it will be hard to go back to a ‘November 7th’ world- even if we wanted to. The question is : Do we simply want to go back to the way things were, or should be we planning and fighting for a new vision of our country. President Bannon surely is doing so- shouldn’t we? Resistance is a tool to build a new future. What will that future look like? Download Enhanced Podcast

The election of DJT represents a break point in American history, challenging all the principles and virtues that we presume to hold. Given the disruption caused by our new politics, it will be hard to go back to a ‘November 7th’ world- even if we wanted to. The question is : Do we simply want to go back to the way things were, or should be we planning and fighting for a new vision of our country. President Bannon surely is doing so- shouldn’t we? Resistance is a tool to build a new future. What will that future look like? Download Enhanced Podcast

Listen in to some of the speakers at the February 19, 2017 #ScienceMarch in Boston. Download Enhanced Podcast

Listen in to some of the speakers at the February 19, 2017 #ScienceMarch in Boston. Download Enhanced Podcast

Bad news from DC is balanced by continued good work here in Massachusetts. We discuss what it all means, from Seattle’s divestment of DAPL to new bills in the Massachusetts Legislature calling for clean energy. Download Enhanced Podcast

Bad news from DC is balanced by continued good work here in Massachusetts. We discuss what it all means, from Seattle’s divestment of DAPL to new bills in the Massachusetts Legislature calling for clean energy. Download Enhanced Podcast