Ecotopia

Tonight we will be talking with Mary Muchowski and Robin Huffman of the Butte Environmental Council.  We’ll talk first with Mary, who is the Education and Outreach Coordinator, about the Endangered Species Faire that comes up this Saturday, May 1, 10 am to 4 pm. 

We’re pleased to say that we’ve been asked to emcee the Faire, so we will be there throughout the day telling folks what’s happening and introducing a range of outstanding guests and musical groups. 

Then in the second part of the show tonight we’ll talk with Robin Huffman, who is the Advocacy Director for the Butte Environmental Council, about some of the major projects of the council, protecting the Northstate’s land, air, and water, and learning how we can all become more involved in the work of the Council. 

Our Questions for Mary Muchowski

 

Mary Muchowski, Education and Outreach Coordinator of the Butte Environmental Council.  She is organizing this Saturday’s Endangered Species Faire, the 31^st annual Faire, a huge project.  Thanks for joining us, Mary. 

• Let’s start with the history of the Faire, which dates back to the early 1970s.  Where did it come from? 
• How has it evolved over the years?
• What are some of the highlights of this year’s Faire:
  • Exhibits and hands on activities for adults and kids?
  • Musical and other entertainment?
  • Exhibitors?
  • Food?
• How many people do you expect to attend this year’s Faire?
• [ Remind listeners that it takes place Saturday, May 1, 10 am to 4 pm, Cedar Grove, Bidwell Park.]
• Is there a charge for admission?  Additional information at http://endangeredspeciesfaire.org/
• Your web site lists the events and gives a good deal more information.
• In particular, the site lists state and federal endangered species, a list that is long and frightening.  How many endangered species are there in California?  Although we’ll be talking with Robin Huffman in a few minutes about BEC’s programs, could you tell us a little about how, specifically, BEC’s projects and programs are helping preserve endangered species?
•  Please tell us a little more about your work as Education and Outreach Director.  In addition to the Faire, what does BEC do for the public, the schools, the community?]

Our Conversation with Robin Huffman 

 Robin Huffman is  Advocacy Director for BEC.  

BEC has a wide range of projects underway, more than we can possibly do justice to in this segment.  But perhaps you can give us an overview of some of  these: 

• Water.  BEC and other organizations just won a lawsuit concerning the use of Northstate waters for alleged “drought” conditions.  Can you tell us a little about this case?
• The Tuscan Aquifer study.
• Water bottling—the Orland plant, the foothills 160 af exportation plan.
• Butte County General Plan 2030. (Regional Conservation Plan.)  Given hard economic times, is the environment more threatened than ordinarily?
• New Era Mine.
• Chico/Butte Creek preservation and restoration.
• Other topics you’d like to cover?

  Obviously these efforts require time and money.  Please tell about how listeners can become involved—maybe as simple as volunteering at the office, but possibly becoming major movers/researchers in some of these causes.  And what kinds of funds are needed to support this work.  http://www.becnet.org

   Playlist for Ecotopia #83: Endangered Species Faire

1.   Black Moon (Album Version)        6:59        Emerson, Lake & Palmer        Black Moon

2.   Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)        3:16        Marvin Gaye

                What's Going On

3.   Supernova        4:42        Liquid Blue       

        Supernova       

4.   Doctor My Eyes (LP Version)        3:20        Jackson Browne       

        Jackson Browne       

5.   Trophic Cascade        4:12        Ronn Fryer       

        Endangered Animals (Environmental Jenga)       

6.   Weave Me the Sunshine        4:28        Peter, Paul And Mary       

        The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary       

7.   Death Of Mother Nature Suite (Album Version)        7:54        Kansas       

        Kansas       

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Tonight we will be exploring two Ecosystems in the northstate—having to do with water and then fire. 

We’ll be talking with Jim Brobeck, who is a water policy analyst for Aqualliance, a new organization in the northstate formed to confront attempts to divert more water from the northern Sacramento River Basin.

 Then we’ll talk with Calli-Jane Burch who is the Executive Director of the Butte Fire Safe Council, which provides educational information and a number of services to help keep us safe from fire in the northstate. 

Listen to the program: Click here.

Our Conversation with Jim Brobeck

We read from the website of AquAlliance, a newly formed organization in the northstate:

Water means life. Flora and fauna, land and people exist only with this essential element. High in the mountains, creeks and rivers commence their journey through majestic forests, oak woodlands, wetland savannas, and working lands before joining the mother river, the great Sacramento. AquAlliance exists to defend northern California waters.

 http://www.aqualliance.net/index.html 

 Our guest is Jim Brobeck who has served as the foothill regional representative on the Butte County Water Advisory Committee allowing him to have direct communication with the county water department staff and water commission over the years. During Barbara Vlamis’s tenure at Butte Environmental Council Jim worked on many water and land use issues. Jim followed Vlamis when she was hired to direct Aqualliance.

• Let’s start with Aqualliance.  What is it?  When was it formed?  What’s its purpose?
• Perhaps the most urgent issue facing Aqualliance and our listeners is proposals to divert Glenn County waters to the south. Please give us an overview of those proposals.
  • Who wants to divert water?
  • What and how much do they want to divert?
  • How much money would change hands and who would receive it?
  • What would be the consequences to the Tuscan Aquifer if they are allowed to proceed?
  • BEC and Aqualliance are fighting Governor Schwarzenegger’s  declaration that we are in a period of drought, so diversion is necessary.  What’s your counter argument?
  • Where do these legal issues and lawsuits stand?
  • Who are the attorneys for BEC and Acqualliance?  Who are the attorneys for the opposition?  Does the opposition have deep pockets?
  • We’ve read that some legerdemain is afoot in that technically, existing irrigation water would be diverted, followed by extraction of groundwater to replace that lost from irrigation canals.  Why don’t people simply pump water straight from the ground to southern California?
  • Your website includes an action alert for a public commentary on the proposed water transfer. Please tell us how interested listeners can register their opinions.

Our Questions for Calli-Jane Burch Calli-Jane Burch  is Executive Director of the Butte Firesafe Council.

• Please tell us about the function and mission of the Firesafe Council.
• You are part of a larger California organization, Firesafe, and it sponsors a number of local councils, including, in our area: Palermo, Paradise, Upper Ridge, Yankee Hill, Berry Creek and Forbestown.  How do these organizations mesh?
• What services do you offer?
• What are your current projects?
• What do people need to do on their own for fire safety?
• How can people become more actively involved?

buttefirecouncil@yahoo.com
www.buttefiresafe.org

Playlist for Ecotopia #82 Fire and Water

Playlist

  1. Oceans Rising        3:58        Kristen Grainger & Dan Wetzel                Part Circus, Part Rodeo                        2. Cool Water        2:01        Sons Of The Pioneers                Sons of the Pioneers: The Essential Collection 3.  Hidden Waters   Jimmy Brobeck               4. Save the Water        3:36        Stan Breckenridge                Reflections                        5. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes        3:53        Jeri Southern                The Very Thought of You: The Decca Years, 1951-1957        6. Burn        5:10        Fruit                The Trio Album – Live at the Church        7. Weave Me the Sunshine        4:28        Peter, Paul And Mary                 The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary        8. Haunted by Waters – A River Runs Through It (Reprise)        4:22        Mark  Isham                A River Runs Through It 9. Water Music – Horn Suite in F        38:00        George Frideric Handel                The Baroque Experience 10.. Wade In The Water        4:35        The Packway Handle Band                (Sinner) You Better Get Ready

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Our guests tonight are Brooke and Monique. They are a part of E-ARC (Environmental Action Resource Center), a free environmental library open to students, faculty, staff and community members. We’ll be taking with them about this weekend’s Eco-Fest, to be held on the Chico State Campus and about the other activities and projects of E-ARC. In this program, too, we read some earth day poems. Because of copyright issues, we’ll list only the titles and authors of the poems, but if you do a web search by author/title, you can find most of these texts online.  Good reading–check it out.

A Brief History of Earth Day

The Earth Network website provides and entertaining history

 Earth Day — April 22 — each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” Apollo 13, the Beatles’ last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, the birth of Mariah Carey, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina — an incident not acknowledged for 18 years.

It was into such a world that the very first Earth Day was born.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. ” “It was a gamble,” he recalls, “but it worked.”

At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.

Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.

Sen. Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest honor given to civilians in the United States — for his role as Earth Day founder.

As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues on to the world stage. Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Events varied: A talking drum chain traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, for example, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA. Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world ’round wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy.

http://www.earthday.net/

Some Earth Day Events 2010

One billion people will celebrate this global holiday in ways as diverse and creative as the places where they live.

This week around the world:

 ITEREI, MIRACATU, Brazil will sponsor Earth DAY 2010: Save the Cassador Basin. ONE Planet. ONE FUTURE. Several Species.

Ottawa Canada is holding 1-800-GOT-JUNK?,  a free electronic disposal day in recognition of the 40th Anniversary of International Earth Day. Only electronic items will be accepted for free disposal.

Banja Luka, in Bosnia and Herzegovina will sponsor ORA (Observe, Rethink, Act) an International environmental meeting.

Croatia will host a conference with students of Faculty of science, University of Zagreb, and also members of NGO BIUS; they will give a series of brief presentations, titled David & Goliath – Short History of Earth – Human Relationship at in Zagreb, in an event organized under the umbrella of EcoGreen Europe as part of the 40th Earth Day Celebration in Croatia.

In Paris, France, there will be Susan Adda ArtWorks Production, An exhibition from The CleanArt Planet Project to celebrate Earth Day 40 .

In Marsa Alam, Egypt there will be a Red Sea Diving Safari to  clean-up dives in three bays in the Red Sea area, they are Gabel Rosas, Marsa Nakari & Marsa Samadai. These dives will include volunteers to collect rubbish from the sea in special designed bags.

In Hyderabad, India, The Indian Youth Climate Network (IYCN) will be screening the movie “Home” at multiple places across the city in partnership with the American Consulate in Hyderabad.

Israel will hold its 2010 Green Globes Ceremony in Tel Aviv, The Event is sponsored by the Green Environment Fund, is a high-visibility annual function which recognizes the best and the worst of environmental practices. NGO’s select those who will recieve the national awards of excellence for outstanding contributions to promote the environment and public health. They also vote on who will be exposed for harmful practices. The Ceremony takes place at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv.

In Caracas, Venezuela, a Tree Planting event is being sponsored:  On April 21 and 22, 550 preeschoolers will be planting seeds at their school. They will take care of their plants at home until May 30th, and then the children will be learning what happens while their plants grows. Then, they will bring their plants to the school again by May 30th, and that day, the school will donate those 550 plants to VITALIS (Proyecto Avila) as a support for their reforesting project.

 Earth Day. Org  has many, many more events being sponsored this week in honor of the 40^th Anniversary of Earth Day.

Earth911.org  also highlights these:

General Motors’ plan to release revolutionary electric car

The Climate Rally at the National Mall: The growing dependence on Middle Eastern oil and the lack of a major climate bill are only two of the many environmental problems existing in this country. This is why the Earth Day Network is organizing a climate rally at The National Mall in an effort to encourage Congress to pass effective clean energy and climate legislation in 2010. The climate rally is the highlight of the Earth Day Network’s nine-day festival at the National Mall, and will feature live music from stars like Sting, The Roots, Passion Pit, John Legend, Bob Weir and Booker T.

Sebastian Copeland, an art ambassador of Earth Day Network, is taking a photographic journey into the Arctic where he will witness in person the effect that global warming has had on the poles.

The Green IT Awards in London: To reward the efforts of green distributors, suppliers and companies, Green I.T. Magazine will be hosting the annual Green I.T. Awards on Earth Day. The ceremony seeks to highlight and honor organizations and projects that have changed the face of the I.T. industry’s environmental performance.

On Earth Day, the Jane Goodall Institute in China will be teaching students and instructors in the city of Beijing how to reduce their carbon footprint by switching from conventional tissue paper to handkerchiefs.

An Artist’s Exhibit: iTo raise awareness of the Earth’s diminishing biodiversity, Maya Lin created “What is Missing?”, a Web site scheduled to launch on Earth Day that will compile photographs, videos and information from her various art exhibitions.  All of her sculptures share an environmental theme that serve collectively as a digital memorial to the species and habitats we have already lost. These installations range from the Listening Cone, a permanent sculpture that contains sound and text, to a billboard video featuring a five-minute movie that shows images of extinct and endangered species. The billboard video will be broadcast in cities across the world on Earth Day, and has already won a highly coveted position on MTV’s billboard in Times Square.  Perhaps the most haunting of Lin’s exhibitions is a creation she calls The Empty Room, which is a traveling show where visitors will actually be able to catch and hold onto projected images drifting in mid-air. Species featured range from songbirds to whales, while each panel will include information that viewers can read.

The full article about these Earth Day observations can be found at Earth911.com

Earth Day Poetry

Gary Snyder, “For All”
Mary Oliver, “Climbing the Chagrin River”
Ronald Wallace, “The Great Apes”
James Wright, “A Blessing”
Edna St. Vincent Millay, “The Leaf and the Tree”
William Wordsworth, “The Daffodils”
Li Bai, “Drinking Alone Under the Moon”

Our Conversation with Brooke and Monique of E-ARC

We’re here in the studio talking with Monique and Brooke; they’re with E-ARC , the Environmental Action Resource Center at Chico State.

1. What are the purpose and goals of E-ARC?
2. What sorts of environmental resources are available there?
3. What’s the process for using these resources?
4. And what sort of help can people expect when they are looking for information?
5. You also have internship and volunteer opportunities. Can you tell us about those?
6. What other events have you worked on? (Green Transitions film series, for example?)
7. You are a resource center? Do you consider yourselves activists? Advocates? What form does your advocacy take?
8. Your webpage says you do educational outreach. Tell us what you do?
9. Where are you located and what are your hours? How can people reach you?
10. And tell us again about the time and place for Eco-Fest.

E-ARC is located in BMU 301 (third floor) open M-Th 9-5:00 and Fri 10-2:00  530-898-5676   http://www.aschico.com/earc

Playlist for Ecotopia #81: Earth Day

1. Supernova            4:42    Liquid Blue   Supernova   

2. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem) 5:11    Neil Young    Ragged Glory           Earth Anthem           3:54   

3. The Turtles            Go Green: Songs for Earth Day

4. Teach Your Children     3:02    Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young        Four Way Street

5. Working On A Dream      3:30    Bruce Springsteen  Working On A Dream

6 .Weave Me the Sunshine          4:28    Peter, Paul And Mary          The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary  

7. Love Etc.  3:32    Pet Shop Boys         Yes (Bonus Track Version)           

8. Nature’s Way        2:40    Spirit   Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus           Rock              

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6 March 2010

We’ll be talking with Dr. Paul Blanc of the UC San Francisco about his book, How Everyday Products Make People Sick. Not only does it describe some everyday perils, but it explores the history of toxic materials and raises serious doubts about the ability of the responsible government agencies to protect us from them.

Background on Toxins at Home and the Workplace

We’ll begin our background on toxins tonight with an article from the Food Consumer dot org website, that relates to a topic we took up two weeks ago on Ecotopia: Monsanto’s genetically engineered “roundup ready” crops.  An interview with Jeffrey Smith, author of Deceptive Seeds, begins:

Corn chips, or tortilla chips, are quite pervasive. Perhaps you’ve had some yourself this week? Well, let’s see how you feel about buying them again once you realize what you’re risking by eating them.

In the only human feeding study ever published on genetically modified foods, seven volunteers ate so-called Roundup-ready soybeans. These are soybeans that have herbicide-resistant genes inserted into them in order to survive being sprayed with otherwise deadly doses of Roundup herbicide.

In three of the seven volunteers, the gene inserted into the soy transferred into the DNA of their intestinal bacteria, and continued to function long after they stopped eating the GM soy!

There are serious medical implications to this finding. However, the GM-friendly UK government, who funded the study, chose not to fund any follow up research to see if GM corn — which are engineered to produce an insecticide called BT toxin — might also transfer and continue to create insecticide inside your intestines.

These kinds of studies are sorely needed, and fast, because as of right now, about 85 percent of the corn grown in the US is genetically engineered to either produce an insecticide, or to survive the application of herbicide. And about 91-93 percent of all soybeans are genetically engineered to survive massive doses of Roundup herbicide.

The Food Consumer interview with Jeffrey Smith concludes with a scathing indictment of the Food and Drug Administration’s failures to protect consumers and possible conflicts of interest within government regulatory agencies.

Back in 1992, the FDA authority responsible for the decision of whether or not to label GM foods turned out to be a former attorney for none other than Monsanto. His name is Michael Taylor.

He went from being Monsanto’s attorney to serving as their vice president, and after that he became a policy maker at the FDA…

[Michael Taylor was named deputy commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2010. He is the first individual to hold the position, which was created along with a new Office of Foods in August 2009.]

Taylor [has] claimed that [in 1992] the agency was not aware of any information showing that GM foods were significantly different than conventional foods, and therefore no testing and no labeling were required….

In fact, the overwhelming consensus among the FDA’s own scientists were that genetically modified foods were inherently dangerous and could create allergies, toxins, new diseases and nutritional problems, and of course they should be labeled because they are a food additive and new food additives must be labeled.

However, [Jeffrey] Smith explains, the FDA was directed by the White House to promote the biotechnology industry, and they knew that if they labeled GM foods, most Americans would avoid it like the plague. So, true to form, they supported the economic interests of the biotech companies at the cost of long-term human and environmental health.

You can read the full interview online at :

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Safety/gmo/engineered_poison_lurking_in_your_everyday_food_0304100906.html?print

Our central focus tonight with our guest, Dr. Paul Blanc, will not so much be possible genetically engineered toxins but with the increasing number of chemicals, often very sophisticated, lab-created molecules, that are used in everyday products and endanger the health of users. He’s also concerned with the lack of consumer protection by government agencies.  Here’s a related article from the March 30 New York Times by reporter David Leonhardt, who writes:

For 14 years until just last month, GlaxoSmithKline sold a denture cream called Super Poligrip that contained high levels of zinc.  The zinc helped with adhesion and was probably safe so long as people used moderate amounts of cream. Indeed, the human body needs small amounts of zinc to function. But some people ended up using much larger amounts, and the began to develop the kind of nerve damage associated with excess zinc.

Johnny Howell of Winston-Salem, N.C., who was using a tube of Poligrip a week, had to quit his job as a car mechanic and now needs a walker to get around his house. He is 53 years old. Rodney Urbanek, another Poligrip customer, began using a walker in 2007, at age 63. He died a year later, apparently a result of a copper deficiency from “zinc overload,” according to his autopsy

Now, the science here still is not completely clear. One researcher I interviewed said he wanted to see more evidence before being confident that Poligrip was the problem. Other researchers said they thought the causal chain was clear. Poligrip has a lot of zinc. Too much zinc causes copper deficiency. A lack of copper causes nerve damage.

Either way, the evidence has become strong enough that last month GlaxoSmithKline — which also makes Tums, Nicorette and the country’s top-selling asthma drug — stopped making the version of Poligrip with zinc, after having previously resisted just such a move. In Japan, responding to regulators’ concerns, the company has also recalled from stores any remaining zinc-infused cream.

All of which makes you wonder: did it have to come this?

[The] United States clearly [is] not taking toxic risks seriously enough.[…] Companies don’t have to release much of their internal safety data. And regulators face a terribly high burden of proof. They can often take action only after they have demonstrated that a substance is harmful — a task that corporate secrecy can make impossible.

[…] The story of denture cream and zinc is a good example. A dentist in the Navy noticed the link between zinc and copper deficiency in the 1950s, according to Dr. Harold Sandstead of the University of Texas in Galveston. Studies in later years confirmed the relationship. Early last decade, researchers made the connection from excess zinc to copper deficiency to neurological problems. “It’s nothing new,” [says] Peter Hedera, a Vanderbilt University neurologist,[…]. “If you researched the field, you would find out.”

Yet, even after those studies [and numerous others] appeared, GlaxoSmithKline continued to sell Poligrip. The company simply inserted a small piece of paper into the product’s box containing some mild statements that barely even seemed to be warnings. The headline on the insert was, “For Best Results Start With a Small Amount.”

[…] GlaxoSmithKline didn’t take more aggressive action because it “did not want to cause alarm,” said Nick Kronfeld, the company’s medical director. “The product has been safe and effective when used according to the label’s directions.” GlaxoSmithKline halted manufacturing as soon as it considered the science to be persuasive, he added.

But given the vagueness of the instructions, the reality of how closely people read fine print and the levels of zinc involved […] the companies sure seemed to be taking a risk with their customers’ health.

[…]  Fortunately, there are some reasons for optimism. Lisa Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator, appears to take toxic risks more seriously than recent predecessors.

Congress also plans to take up a bill this year that would update toxic regulations. As my colleague Charles Duhigg has reported, recent court rulings have helped neuter the existing regulations. The chemical industry seems less opposed to a regulatory overhaul, in part because lax regulation may help low-cost Chinese chemical companies more than American firms.

Needless to say, new regulations have their drawbacks. They could deprive us of products that would have made life better or cheaper and that, despite some early indications to the contrary, turned out to be perfectly safe. Think for a minute about all the Poligrip users who liked the product, were using it without problems and can’t do so anymore.

On the other hand, if you have a friend or family member with dentures, don’t you wish GlaxoSmithKline […]  had been more up front about the apparent risks?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/business/economy/31leonhardt.html

Our Questions for Paul Blanc

Dr. Paul Blanc is a Professor of Medicine and holds an Endowed Chair in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at UC San Francisco.  His book, now in its second edition, is How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace, published by the University of California Press.

Part I: Everyday Toxins

• You have been in the field of environmental and occupational medicine for several decades. Please tell us how you became engaged with this field and the path that led you to this book.
• You begin the book by emphasizing that we need to know the history of dangerous chemicals and profits.  And you are critical of what you call a “revisionist history” that seems to think that Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring “invented” concern for environmental toxins. How far back does this history really go?
  • Perhaps you could give us an example from one of the histories cited in your book, e.g.
    • sick building syndrome and the Black Hole of Calcutta
    • carpal tunnel syndrome and seamstress cramp
• You have chapters in the book on a range of chemicals and problems. One that particularly interested us was the story of chlorine, “which led the way to the 20^th century’s first mass poison and environmental threat.”  Please tell us a little about chlorine in its various iterations—bleach, WWI poison gas, accidental household gassing.
  • At the close of that chapter, you note that better labeling is needed, but that often people do not believe the labels.  Why don’t people believe the labels? What’s the alternative?
• We wonder if you could tell us a little about one or two of the other intriguing topics in your book, e.g.:
  • popcorn lung
  • superglued nails—superglue in general

Part II:  Protecting the Consumer

• You argue that the discovery of new toxins often goes through stages by those responsible: denial, blaming the victim, stalling, and leaving solutions to the marketplace. Could you please talk about or illustrate these stages?

[Earlier in the program we read from a recent New York Times about zinc levels in Poligrip, where, as you seem to predict, the company denied or ignored the research and then blamed consumers for not following instructions.]

• Your book is awash in acronyms for federal agencies that are charged with protecting the consumer—the more familiar ones being FDA, OSHA, and EPA. And you argue that these agencies are, in general, failing us miserably. Please explain a little of the hows and whys.
• How do politics enter into the processes of consumer protection?  Do you see any changes in attitudes or policy with the current administration?
• A powerful theme running through your book is that we need to hear the stories of victims of environmental poisoning. Why haven’t these stories been heard? How can/will they be told in the future?
• Where can listeners go for more information or to monitor these complex issues?

Stories from the Victims

We were impressed by Dr. Blanc’s concerrn throughout the book that the stories of individuals affected by these toxins need to be told.  Some are told through music, and our plalist includes some songs tonight that tell victims’ stories. Another way in which those stories are told is through poetry, and we want to read a few poetry excerpts from Dr. Blanc’s book.

Here’s Eldridge Cleaver’s poem “Toxic Waste and Acid Rain”:

We were a closeknit Company Town

Built during World War Two,

In very great haste

On a landfill site

Stuffed with toxic waste.

I’m known throughout the world,

As the Original Toxic Clown

I glow in the dark

And my breath is so bad

I can blow a stone wall down.

From a less well known writer, William Dodd, who was disabled as a child because of an industrial accident, an excerpt from his 1847 poetry collection, A Voice from the Factories:

What is it to be a slave?  Is’t not to spend

A life bowed down beneath a grinding ill?—

To labor on to serve another’s end,–

To give up leisure, health, and strength, and skill—

And give up each of these against your will?

And here is poet Muriel Rukeyser, from her 1938 Book of the Dead:

those carrying light for safety on their foreheads

descended deeper for richer faults of ore,

drilling their death.

Those touching radium and the luminous poison,

Carried their death on their lips and with their warning glow in their graves

These weave and their eyes water and rust away,

These stand at wheels until their brains corrode,  these farm and starve,

All these men cry their doom across the world,

Meeting avoidable death, fight against madness, find every war.

Playlist for Ecotopia #80: Everyday Toxins

1. Poison In The Well (LP Version)        3:09        10,000 Maniacs  Blind Man’s Zoo

2.  Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)        5:24        Joan Baez  Bowery Songs

3.  Industrial Disease        5:50        Dire Straits  Love Over Gold

4.  Silicosis Is Killing Me        3:02        Josh White  Best Of        Blues

5.  Slower Than Guns (LP Version)        3:50        Iron Butterfly  Metamorphosis

6.  Weave Me the Sunshine        4:28        Peter, Paul And Mary  The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary

7.  Poison Trees        4:00        The Devil Makes Three  Do Wrong Right

8.  Metal Fume Fever        2:01        Juliana Hatfield   Juliana’s Pony: Total System Failure

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23 March 2010

Our guest tonight is Jan Spencer.  Jan is from Eugene, Oregon and  will be visiting Chico, Tuesday, April 6^th, at the Quaker Meeting House, 6:30 pm,  as part of a speaking tour called Global Trends-Local Choices: Creating a Safer, More Secure, and Greener Community.”

Our Questions for Jan Spencer

1. Tell us a little bit about the Suburban Permaculture Project in Eugene. You say on your website that your goal was to “remake the house and property with mostly low cost strategies so it could take care of more of my needs from on site assets like rain, soil and sun, plus my own creativity.”

2. You’ve done some pretty major projects on your one-quarter acre property and suburban house. Tell us about some of the projects you’ve done over the past 10 years. What has been the most important? The most challenging? Do you still have projects that you want to accomplish on your land?

3. Why do you do all of this? Why is it important to you?

4. You presented a paper at the Eco Cities World Summit, San Francisco, 2008 about converting a suburban property into a “model of eco logical culture change.” First of all, what do you mean by that term–eco logical culture change–and what did/do you advocate?

5. Can you tell us about some of the other projects you’ve worked on?

6.  Your big project is your “Global Trends–Local Choices” DVD. You say:  “The goal of Global Trends – Local Choices is to encourage people to take an active part in this bold and timely adventure – to find creative, uplifting and peaceful ways to take care of human needs that planet Earth can sustain over the long term.” How did you come to create this DVD? What is your goal, your hopes for this DVD?

7. You say that the DVD is radical and challenging? What do you mean by that?

8. You’ll be starting a tour of Oregon and California next month. Tell us about that.

9. And you’ll be in Chico on April 4 and April 6. Can you give us the details of your visit here? What will you be talking about?

10. How can people reach you to learn more about the DVD and your work?

11. What assets and resources are available to help people make changes to create the kinds of communities you’re talking about?

Playlist for Ecotopia #79

1. Plant a Radish 2:34  Hugh Thomas & William Larsen

The Fantasticks (Soundtrack from the Musical)

2. Nature’s Way  2:40  Spirit

Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus

3. We Share Our Mothers’ Health (Ratatat Remix)    4:02  The Knife

We Share Our Mothers’ Health

4. Mother Nature’s Son 2:48  The Beatles

The Beatles (White Album)

5. Glorious  5:19  MaMuse

All The Way

6. Weave Me the Sunshine    4:28  Peter, Paul And Mary

The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary

7. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)  5:11  Neil Young

Ragged Glory

8. Seed      6:25  Afro Celt Sound System        Seed

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