Ecotopia

35 Whale Wars  2 June 09

 

“All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”

Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Not every whale has the rage and hate of the world piled on it as did Captain Ahab with Moby Dick.

To the contrary, the whale is widely regarded as one of the most intelligent, communicative, musical, and social animals on the planet, and one whose future is in doubt because of slaughter that has gone on since before Ahab’s time and continues to the present day.

Tonight our topic is “Whale Wars,” and our guest is Simon Avery, who is a member of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. He and other members of the Society patrol the seas looking for violators of international whaling treaties and confronting them, directly, and even violently. The Sea Shepherd Conservation society has been featured on Animal Planet in a series called “Whale Wars,” and we’ll be talking with Simon not only about his work at sea but with the making of the Discovery Channel series.

News and Information on Cetations

We’ll start with a few facts about whales from Softpedia:

•  Cetaceans (whales and dolphins) appeared 50 million years ago (the oldest known whale being Pakicetus), having (as revealed by DNA) a common origin with the hippopotamus (!). 40 million years ago whales  divided into baleen whales and toothed whales. Baleens are  fringed plates hanging from the roof of the mouth, which can be up to 4 m (13 ft) long and weigh 180 kg (450 pounds). They work like a sieve: the whale sucks at once up to six cubic meters of seawater: the water is filtered though the baleens’ stitches while the food items (crustaceans, fish, mollusks) are retained by the baleens. Blue whale has 320 baleens. Despite their enormous size, the pharynx of the baleen whale is so narrow that they cannot swallow preys bigger than a herring (that’s why they can be asphyxiated if they swallow birds hovering around their mouth while catching krill and fish). calling into question the stories of Jonah and Pinocchio.
• The largest whale (and ever existing animal) is the blue whale: up to 100 ft in length and 181 tons, with an average size iof 81-84 ft in length and 150 tons. The smallest balleen whale is the Pygmy Right Whale, 20 ft long and 3 tons heavy. The largest toothed whale is the sperm whale, which can reach 60 ft in length and 50 tons in weight. 
• Whales give birth every 2-3 years. They need waters with temperatures of 22-25 C to do this, that’s why offspring are born in shallow tropical waters (Caribbean, Hawaii, Australia and others). After a 10-12 months gestation, whales have just one calf, which suckles for 5-12 months. The lactating female delivers 200-570 quarts of extremely fatty milk: Sucking lasts for a few seconds, 30-40 times per day. 
• Whales are slaughtered for their blubber oil (used for lamp illuminating or making candles, soap, margarine), meat , skin (for handbags, bicycle saddles), baleens (once used for making corsets and umbrellas), liver (rich in vitamin A and D), tendons (for racket strings or surgery threads), bones, blood (for fertilizers), teeth (in the case of the sperm whale, used for making carvings, dice, buttons).
• Between 1835 and 1872, about 300,000 were hunted worldwide. The invention of the trans-harpoon cannon in 1868 started the massacre. The new fire power harpoon was carrying a grenade exploding when hitting the animal. Fast moving whales, like the blue whale and its relatives  could be hunted, not just the slower right whales, gray whales and sperm whales.
• Between 1930 and 1931, 28,325 blue whales were hunted, just 20 between 1964 and 1965 and from 1965 to 1966 just 4! Overall, in 1950, 55,795 whales were killed worldwide, in 1975 – 37,000; and in 1981 – only 15,000. 
• Since 1986, an international ban on whaling has been ratified, but two of the so-called most civilized nations, Japan and Norway, refused to sign it and keep on hunting whales (in Japan under the mask of a  “scientific” program, while whale meat is delivered to Japanese restaurants). The whale populations are recovering now, but the slow process is hampered by continuing activity of the international whaling fleet.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/13-Amazing-Facts-About-Whales-68659.shtml

There is positive news about the reported May 30 by Science Daily: Blue Whale Discovered Singing In New York Coastal Waters:

For the very first time in New York coastal waters, the voices of singing blue whales have been positively identified. Acoustic experts at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bioacoustics Research Program (BRP) and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed that the voice of a singing blue whale was tracked about 70 miles off of Long Island and New York City on Jan. 10-11, 2009, as the whale swam slowly from east to west. At the same time, a second blue whale was heard singing offshore in the far distance.

 New York State’s DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis [said], “This is a very important moment in the environmental history of New York State. Blue whales were almost hunted to extinction by the middle of the 20th Century, and the fact that now we’re finding them migrating not far off our shores is truly remarkable. Although whaling no longer occurs in U.S. waters, whales still face numerous threats including vessel strikes and marine debris, and this latest finding will enable DEC and its partners to develop science-based management plans to protect these magnificent creatures.”

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090529211633.htm

And an encouraging May 18 AP story by Mary Pemberton reports that Blue Whales Are Returning to Alaska:

Blue whales are returning to Alaska in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route several decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say.

The endangered whales, possibly the largest animals ever to live on Earth, have yet to recover from the worldwide slaughter that eliminated 99 percent of their number, according to the American Cetacean Society. The hunting peaked in 1931 with more than 29,000 animals killed in one season.

The animals used to cruise from Mexico and Southern California to Alaska, but they had mostly vanished from Alaskan waters.

But several sightings of California whales in recent years off the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia suggest that the massive animals are expanding north again in search of tiny shrimp-like krill to eat, scientists contend in a recent article published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/18/blue-whales.html

However, whales are still seen as valuable economic game, as shown in this New York Times editorial published in January concerning Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and the endangered Beluga whale:

In October, while Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska was campaigning to be vice president, the federal government added the beluga whales in the state’s Cook Inlet to the endangered species list. At the time, Governor Palin opposed the listing, saying it would be “premature.” (She said the same thing about protecting polar bears.) Now Ms. Palin has announced that she will sue to remove the whales from the protection of the Endangered Species Act.

In Governor Palin’s view, what is really endangered is Alaska’s economic growth. Cook Inlet, the long arm of water that reaches toward Anchorage from the Gulf of Alaska, is one of the busiest and fastest-developing regions in the state. There are plans for gas and oil development, an expansion of the Port of Anchorage, as well as a possible new bridge.

Ms. Palin argues that the state has already taken adequate measures to protect the belugas. The numbers certainly argue otherwise. The beluga population in Cook Inlet last year was estimated at 375, down from a high of 653 in 1994.

In explaining her intent to file suit, the governor has challenged virtually every aspect of the listing decision — including the scientific finding that these belugas are a separate and distinct genetic population seriously at risk. Former Senator Ted Stevens went so far as to call the listing “a deliberate targeting of an area vital to the Alaskan economy.”

There is no doubt that Cook Inlet is vital to Alaskans. But it is also vital to the species that live in its waters. Listing the belugas does not mean shutting down the economy of the Cook Inlet. It means adjusting it to accommodate species that cannot adapt or survive any other way.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/opinion/29thu3.html

Our Questions for Simon Avery:

Part I

1. Tell us about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. How did it come into being? What’s its relationship to Greenpeace? (I saw one video, I think on the Sea Shepherd site where someone accused Greenpeace of taking money under false pretenses, of feathering their personal nests, of being passive in their work to save sea life.) We may ask follow up questions about its history, etc. I’d like to know more about Paul Watson.

 

2. In looking at the Sea Shepherd website, I thought that it claimed some relationship to the UN. Does it work with the UN? Does the UN approve its operations?

3. What sorts of treaties are in place to protect the whales? Why aren’t those treaties enforced?

4. Where does Sea Shepherd carry out it operations? What are some particular “hot spots”?  What sorts of equipment does it use? What are its strategies? How many people work with Sea Shepherd? And many of them are volunteers?

5. What have been some of the successes of Sea Shepherd? What sorts of changes or effects are you seeing? Have there been failures as well?  Of what sort?

6. Some have called Sea Shepherd “eco-terrorists,” and at least one person I know called them vigilantes. How would you respond to that  characterization?

7. Can you describe a typical operation?

Part II

1. Can you tell us a little about how you became involved in Sea Shepherd?

2. I’ve watched some of the videos of Sea Shepherd operations. The work seems really scary. Have you ever been in danger? Have you ever been afraid? What’s the scariest work you’ve been involved in?

3. Sea Shepherd has now become famous through a series on Animal Planet called “Whale Wars.” Can you tell us a little bit about the  television program?

4. Apparently “Whale Wars” has been a bit controversial. What makes it controversial? Do you know why Animal Planet wants to take on this kind of controversy?

5. What are your colleagues like on your crew? What’s a typical day like? I saw/heard on one video that the crew eats vegan food. Is that a requirement? Or are all Sea Shepherds vegans?

6. How does the filming crew of Animal Planet do a film session? Do they go out on a typical outing? How long are they with the crew? How does the television crew work with the Sea Shepherd crew? What sorts of trips do they go along on?  Are they ever in danger?

7. We noticed from your bio on the Sea Shepherd website that you had a  number of jobs before joining up with Sea Shepherd, including working with the Nature Conservancy . . . was that here in Chico? What’s your training? What other sorts of activist work have you done? What motivated you to join up with Sea Shepherd? Any ideas how long you think you’ll do this work?

Do-It-Yourself: Helping the Whales

The New York Times Science Section Archives has great stuff on whales and whaling, stories over the years.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/whales_and_whaling/index.html

They also have a great list of resources for learning more about whales and for activism:

 Whales Navigator

 A list of resources from around the Web about whales as selected by researchers and editors of The New York Times. As you can see, Sea  Shepherd is among them.

 Government Resources

           o Marine Mammal Protection Act

           o Text of U.S. law protecting whales.

           o International Whaling Commission

           o 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

           o Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act

           o U.S. law protecting whale habitat.

           o National Marine Mammal Laboratory

           o U.S. government research organization.

           o Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary

           o Federally protected whale habitat off Hawaii.

       Whale Research Societies

           o The Society for Marine Mammology

           o Marine mammal research society.

           o European Cetacean Society

           o Whale conservation organization in Europe.

           o American Cetacean Society

           o Whale conservation organization in U.S.

           o Hawaii Whale Research Foundation

           o Information about humpback whales.

       Whale Advocacy Groups

           o Greenpeace Whaling Campaign

           o Updates on Greenpeace campaign to end whaling.

           o Save the Whales

           o Non-profit dedicated to marine mammals.

           o Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

           o Activist marine wildlife conservation organization.

       Books

           o Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America

           o By Eric Jay Dolan

           o Melville: His World and Work

           o By Andrew Delbanco

Kidsbiology.com is a great kids’ learning site for all animals.

 http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php?category=Whales,%20dolphins,%20and%20Porpoises

 Science News for Kids has lots of resources for learning more about whales:

 http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20050323/refs.asp

 

Playlist for WhaleWars

 

 1.  The Whale Song           2:25    Hoagy Carmichael  Hoagy Carmichael: The First Of The Singer-Songwriters

2.  Song Of The Whale – Part One: From Dawn …         8:20    Tangerine Dream    Underwater Sunlight                       

3.  Song of the World’s Last Whale          2:39    Pete Seeger   At 89  

4.  Solo Whale                      9:29    Humpback Whales   Songs of the Humpback Whale               

5.  Calypso    3:49    John Denver  Earth Songs 

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

7.  Who Is She / Song For The Whales   5:12    Petra Haden and Woody Jackson       Ten Years     

 

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May 19, 2009

Date:  19 May

Community and Sustainability

 Tonight’s program focuses on community and sustainability. We talk with documentary filmmaker Gerard Ungerman. His new film is called Belonging, and it’s described as a “scientific and spiritual journey into humanity’s footprint on the Earth.”  In the first half of the program, we talk with Gerard about the making of that film and about how a filmmaker perceives his world and presents his observations through the medium of film. And in the second part, we discuss his newest project, which is based in Chico and the Northstate and will explore the concepts of community and sustainability as they are emerging in our part of the world.

 Our Questions for Gerard Ungerman

 Part One

·         Your  film is called “Belonging,” and it is being screened in the Northstate area, including a scheduled showing next Saturday night on Cable Channel 11 as part of the Chico Peace and Justice Film Program.  Please tell us about the title and contents of the film.

·         Belonging is part of your larger filmmaking project, which  includes The Oil Factor, Hidden Wars, and Plan Columbia. Please tell us about that sequence.

·         In a recent screening and discussion at Chico State, you were talking about documentary filmmaking as a learning process. What was that process for Becoming? What was the original concept for the film?  How did that evolve as you began the project?

·         In particular, you told the Chico State audience that as you studied the Inuit people of North America, you came to see how the petroleum culture had shaped their lives. What were your observations, and how did they play out in the rest of the film?

·         How do you make a film anyway?  Do you gather the visual images first and then work on the text?  When and where do you seek out interviews? How do you weave in the narrator (in this case Dustin Hoffman—how did you get Hoffman involved in the project?)? 

·         What do you hope the impact of your film can be?  Who should see it? How will it get around? 

·         As we mentioned, Belonging will be shown as part of the Chico Peace and Justice Film Program on Cable Channel 11, Saturday, 8 pm.  What other screenings are in the works?

·         How can people get their own copy of Belonging?  And your other films?

Answer:
http://www.BelongingTheDoc.com,
TheOilFactor.com
HiddenWars.com
PlanColumbia.com
FreeWillProd.com

Part Two

You’re interested in sustainability both globally and locally.  As a relative newcomer to Chico and the Northstate, please tell us about your new project, which we understand will be centered on our town and its people.

·         In speaking at Chico State, you said you thought that this area has the potential to be a model for a sustainable community.  Please explain that.

·         In the first half of the program, we asked you about the process for making Becoming. Let’s talk about how you are proceeding with this project (does it have a working title)?   Do you just point your camera in lots of directions and then edit out the parts you don’t want?  Or do you have a deliberate plan of gathering footage?  Do you have a “thesis” already, or might that emerge as you shoot?

·         What aspects of community in the Northstate have most impressed you? What needs to happen for Our Town to move toward a smaller ecological footprint?

·         More broadly: your work impresses us because you are an activist as well as a filmmaker—you’re obviously not just making movies to earn the big bucks.  As an activist, what do you see as the major problems confronting us (in Chico, in the world) as we move toward sustainability?

·         What would a sustainable world look like? (Can we ever become truly sustainable?  Entropy—which you mentioned at CSU—tells us that basically everything is winding down anyway.)

·         Globally, many governments, including the U.S., have made moves toward sustainability through green building requirements, automobile innovation and restriction, wind and solar, waste and recycling, etc.  Is this a government concern?  Can governments do enough?

·         Our guest last week, David Paxson, saw population as the overwhelming global sustainability problem.  He said that the success of all other causes depends on population control of some sort.  You have noted that the petroculture actually encourages unsustainability—e.g., the Inuit—by allowing people to essentially live beyond their energy means. How does population control fit into your picture of the world?

·         After you finish your film based in the Northstate, where will you point your camera next?

Coming Event

We want to tell you of a special Eco Event taking place tomorrow evening, May 20, when environmentalist, water conservationist, and slide guitar player Jim Brobeck will be performing at Café Flo.  One of his lyrics, “Shoemaker,” reads this way:

 Feet were sore, so we learned to make shoes,
Belly empty, we learned to grow food,
Weather inclement, we learned to make roofs.
So I’m kinda disappointed at the way we have goofed.

We’ve got the brains,
We’ve got the fingers.
God knows we get in
All kinds of mischief.

 You love Jesus, your prince of peace.
We honor Gandhi and Dr. King.
40 years of singing “Give peace a chance”
So I’m kinda disappointed at our circumstance.

 We’ve got the brains,
We’ve got the spirit.
Come on people,Bring peace to the planet

 We’ve got the internet to spread the light,
We’ve got buses, legs, feet and bikes.
Solar panels and power from wind.
So I’m kinda disappointed at the mess we’re in.

 We’ve got the brains.
We’ve got the information.
Come on people,
Let’s clean up the nation.

Playlist for Ecotopia #33: Community and Sustainability

 1. Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)            5:11    Neil Young    Ragged Glory           Rock              
2. BELONGING        1:54    Sound Clip               
3. North Sea Oil (2004 Digital Remaster)            3:12    Jethro Tull     Stormwatch  
4. Home         3:46    Michael Bublé  Home                    
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   Folk               
7. Powerhouse         2:56    Don Byron       Bug Music

 

 

 

 

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May 12, 2009

Our guest tonight is David Paxson, President of World Population Balance, a Minneapolis-based organization that is dedicated to educating people about the need for population stabilization and the effects on the world if we do not take action to control population growth.

Listen to Ecotopia #32 Online Now!

Some Historical Perspectives on Population

From the Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament Bible:

“…And Attai begat Nathan, and Nathan begat Zabad, And Zabad begat Ephlal, and Ephlal begat Obed. And Obed begat Jehu, and Jehu begat Azariah, And Azariah begat Helez, and Helez begat Eleasah, Eleasah begat Sisamai, and Sisamai begat Shallum, And Shallum begat Jakamiah, and Jakamiah begat Elishama…”

From Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798):

I have read some of the speculations on the perfectibility of man and of society with great pleasure. I have been warmed and delighted with the enchanting picture which they hold forth. I ardently wish for such happy improvements. But I see great, and, to my understanding, unconquerable difficulties in the way to them. [,,,]

Thomas Malthus  offered two “postulata:”

First, That food is necessary to the existence of man.

Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state. […]   Thus the power of population is  indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/prppl10.txt

Malthus’ predictions have been widely debated for over two centuries now, and he still has defenders and attackers. But whether or not we accept his predictions as exact, this essay be Theodore Steck from the Encyclopedia of Earth suggests that Malthus was at least partly right:

Approximately 6.6 billion humans now inhabit the Earth. By comparison, there might be 20 million mallard ducks and, among a multitude of threatened and endangered species, perhaps 100,000 gorillas, 50,000 polar bears, and less than 10,000 tigers, 2,000 giant pandas and 200 California condors. Notably, the human population has grown nearly ten-fold over the past three centuries and has increased by a factor of four in the last century. This monumental historical development has profoundly changed the relationship of our species to its natural

A pronounced expansion began with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, about two centuries ago [which, of course was just when Thomas Malthus was writing]. Whereas tens of thousands of years passed before our species reached the one billion mark, around 1800 C.E., it took only 130, 33, 15, 13 and 12 years to add each succeeding billion. This accelerating rate of increase is what is meant by the term population explosion. Around year 1970, population growth reached a maximal rate of about 2% per year—perhaps a thousand times faster than growth in prehistoric times. The annual increment has since dropped from 2.0 to 1.1% (or, as demographers prefer, to 11 per thousand), and it is still going down. The greatest annual increment in population, about 90 million individuals, occurred in 1995, while our numbers grew by only around 76 million in 2004 Nevertheless, this cohort is comparable to adding the population of Germany to the planet each year.

[…But] Fertility is declining with time. It has now dropped to below replacement level (i.e., below 2.1 children in a woman’s lifetime) in most of the developed countries. World-wide, the average woman currently bears 2.6 live offspring. In some African nations, fertility still exceeds 7 live births. At the other extreme, the average woman in Japan and in much of Europe bears approximately 1.3 live babies.[…]

Globally, birth rates will probably continue to decline in the coming decades since, nowadays, couples are increasingly prone to limit their family size, whatever their wealth. Coercion by national governments, such as China’s one-child policy, appears to be unnecessary. If and when the global birth rate again matches death rate, we will hit zero population growth. This could occur by the year 2070 when the population might be 9.5 or 10 billion.http://www.eoearth.org/article/Human_population_explosion

Our Questions for David Paxson, President of World Population Balance, which he cofounded in 1991:

· Please tell us about World Population Balance and your work educating people about the crisis.

· Earlier, we read short passages from Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Human Population. You recently published an article in your newsletter in which Andrew Ferguson argues that Malthus’s postulates are still valid, arguing that though some aspects of the world have changed, the principles of food and population and Malthus’ warnings should still be heeded. Please explain that argument.

· Let’s explore the environmental problems that can be created by the continued population explosion:

o food supplies, factory farming

o water supplies

o the oceans

o fuel and energy supplies

o disease

o aging populations

· One of Malthus’ propositions was that the problem of overpopulation is also a problem of poverty, that, in fact, the consequences of overpopulation are more likely to be visited on the poor than the wealthy. What does your research indicate?

· We earlier read U.N. statistics that show that fertility rates are declining in the so-called developed countries, especially Europe and parts of Asia.

o Where does the U.S. fit into this pattern?

o Are we really in a position to tell countries that are poor and not industrially advanced to lay off procreation?

· In an editorial in your newsletter, Balanced View, you wrote recently:

“In a world with finite and declining vital resources, it’s not rocket science to realize that at some point resources will no longer support more people. So the far more important question is: How will it happen? Will population stabilize inhumanely—by deaths increasing to balance with births? Or will population stabilize humanely—by fewer births balancing historically low death rates?”

How do you see the problem being resolved humanely?

· Your mission statement declares: “Believing strongly in democracy and individual freedom, members of World Population Balance oppose any coercive population control measures.” Is it realistic to suppose that people will come to limit the birth rate voluntarily?

· You also note that you have members who are pro-choice, others who are pro-life. How do you manage to work those two groups?

· You have also done work with the Catholic church and its leaders. Please tell us about that.

· You do a great deal of work in the public schools, helping to educate young people about population issues. What do you say about such controversial issues as abstinence and birth control?

· What role does immigration play in population growth and the availability of resources? Does your organization have a policy or recommendations regarding immigration?

· You recommend that people “meet with your elected representatives and insist that they support population stabilization policies.” What are those policies and how can the U.S. implement them?

· You write “No matter what your cause, it is a lost cause unless we stabilize and then reduce the population.” Can population become a unifying cause for progressive groups?

· What steps can the individual take to participate in the movement for humane population stabilization?

www.WorldPopulationBalance.org

Do-It-Yourself

> If anything, our program on the population explosion has pointed out both the enormity of the problem and a paucity of “simple” solutions. One interesting “map” of possible solutions appears on a website called Mind Maps. Instead of presenting quick-and-easy sure-fail solutions, they draw diagrams that show some of the complexities of these relationships. Check it out at:

http://mappio.com/mindmap/learning-fundamentals/solutions-to-population-explosion

> Planned Parenthood has a program to Expand Global Reproductive Rights. Their key issues are:

The health and safety of women and men around the world must be protected. By increasing access to reproductive health services we can improve gender equality, maternal health, and child survival, allowing women to take control of their lives.

The PPFA International Program partners with local organizations in 17 countries around the world to expand services and pioneer efforts to improve reproductive health and rights. By accepting only private funding, we have the flexibility to carry out truly cutting-edge work.

Planned Parenthood works in Washington to change foreign health policy as well. Just days after taking office, President Obama rescinded the global gag rule, recognizing that women’s health truly matters worldwide.

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/key-issues/expanding-global-reproductive-rights-25938.htm

Playlist for Ecotopia #32

1. Salute Your Solution 3:00 The Raconteurs Consolers Of The Lonely

2. Traffic Jam (Album Version) 2:13 James Taylor James Taylor Live

3. Supernova 4:42 Liquid Blue Supernova

4. Let’s Have A War 2:31 Fear Repo Man

5. People (Single Version) 3:43 Barbra Streisand People

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

7. Laughing 3:36 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Four Way Street [Disc 1] [Live]

8. Powerhouse 2:56 Don Byron Bug Music

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Date: 5 May 09

A few weeks ago, we read you a news release from the American Rivers conservation group that declared the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system to be the most endangered system in America. In earning this dubious distinction, the Sacramento-San Joaquin beat out the Flint River, in Georgia, which, despite extended drought, is threatened with damming projects to slake the thirst of Atlanta, and the Snake River in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, which has been dammed and sluiced over the years to the extent that if you are a barge owner, you can float 800 miles from the Pacific Ocean to Lewiston, Idaho, but if you are a salmon, you can’t make it back to your spawning grounds.

In this program, we speak first with Steve Rothert, authored the report on the Sacramento and San Joaquin system for American Rivers to learn more about the system and how it is being pressured.Then we will talk with Greg Werner of the Nature Conservancy office here in Chico, which, for twenty years, has conducted a project aimed at restoring the Sacramento river here in the Northstate.

Listen to Ecotopia #31 Online Now!
To download the file, right-click (Mac users control-click) and select “Save Link As…”

Our Conversation with Steve Rothert
A recent report from American Rivers begins, “The largest watershed in California is on the verge of collapse, threatening the water supply for 25 million people, placing the capital of the nation’s most populous state at high risk of flooding, and damaging a once productive and healthy ecosystem that supported the nation’s most diverse salmon runs.”

• Please tell us a little about the American Rivers project, how you function, what your goals are.
• The Sacramento flows through the heart of our listening area, just five miles west of Chico, so we are familiar with that. But we know less about it once it leaves our area. Please describe this system for us. (In particular, many of us are a little murky about the “delta” and how it operates.”)
• Is it truly in danger of “collapse”? What would be the effects?
• How did you research the Sac-San Joaquin systems in preparation for this report. What criteria did you use in selecting ours as the most threatened system?
• Let’s review the major threats to the Sac-San Joaquin
  • flood control
  • loss of species
  • overuse
  • water diversion
• What is the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and what are its aims? Who are the stakeholders? Can they agree on recommendations?
• Your report also mentions a controversial peripheral canal and the California Flood Plan. How would that work?
• One of the key elements in American Rivers recommendations is water conservation. Can we realistically expect to reduce demands on the system?
• What’s the available time frame before damage becomes irreversable?
• How can concerned citizens join in the effort to save these rivers?
  Read the full report at http://www.americanrivers.org/.

Our Conversation with Gregg Werner

Gregg Werner is director of the Sacramento River Project for the Nature Conservancy. This project has just celebrated its 20^th anniversary.

• Please tell us more about the work of the Nature Conservancy generally and the Sacramento River Project in particular over the past twenty years.
• Your website states that in the past 150 years, the Sacramento has lost about 98% of its natural woodlands and riparian areas. How have you attempted to remedy that?
• Please tell us about the Hamilton City levee project, which, you say, involves “combining both flood management and public safety benefits with ecosystem conservation benefits.”
• You’ve also said, “We’ve forged a new way of doing business working in close partnership with local residents and unlikely partners like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” [italics added]
• What are your plans for future projects?
• How can concerned listeners get involved with or support the work of the Conservancy on the Sacramento River Projecthttp://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/california/features/sacriveranniv.html

Do-It-Yourself

You’ve heard already from Steve Rothert of American Rivers and Gregg Werner of the Sacramento River Project about ways of supporting their work.

–You should also remember that the Butte Environmental Council has water protection as one of its central projects. A particularly disturbing page on their website reviews endangered and threatened waterways in our area, e.g.
Big Chico Creek (mercury, resource extraction)
Butte Creek (mercury, acidity, resource extraction)
Feather River ( temperature, flow restrictions for hydroelectric)
Lake Oroville (PCBs, mercury)
Sacramento River (chlordane, PCBs, mercury)
http://www.becnettripod.org/waterquality/docs/303dlist.pdf

–University of Minnesota Extension Division has a useful website outlining ways in which recreational users can protect waterways, including

• protecting the banks, don’t erode
• not using herbicides to control growth on the banks
• not using soap to bathe in the water
• not dumping paint or oil in storm sewers
• avoiding gas and oil spills
• packing out all camping trash and waste
• keeping off-road vehicles out of waterways and off banks
• preserving wetlands
• preserving forest areas
• avoiding the introduction of non-native species

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/components/DD6946e.html

–Also check out the website of Northern California River Watch http://www.ncriverwatch.org/about_us/mission.php
Though based primarily in Sonoma county, the site has excellent statistics on river problems and legislation affecting the maintenance of rivers. One of their recent articles argues persuasively that California doesn’t have a “water problem,” it has a “plumbing problem,” with all that implies.

–And check out WaterConserve.org, which features a “genuine water conservation and protection search engine,” which turned up 46 hits for Big Chico Creek, including a fascinating history of the Big Chico Creek watershed, plus active links to river conservation groups all over the world.
http://www.waterconserve.org/riverprotection/

Playlist for Ecotopia #31

1. Old Man River 2:40 Paul Robeson Live At Carnegie Hall, 1958
2. Proud Mary 5:27 Tina Turner All The Best
3. Riverdance 3:17 Celtic Roots Riverdance & Lord Of The Dance
4. Haunted by Waters – A River Runs Through It (Reprise) 4:2 Mark Isham A River Runs Through It Soundtrack
5. Weave Me the Sunshine 4:28 Peter, Paul And Mary The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary
6. Catch Hell Blues 4:18 The White Stripes Icky Thump
7. Cool, Cool River 3:56 Paul Simon Rhythm Of The Saints

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30 April 2009

Tonight our topic is “Global Greening.” We talk with Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange, who proposes to turn overseas military bases into centers of green technology and education.

Listen to Ecotopia #30 Online Now!
To download the file, right-click (Mac users control-click) and select “Save Link As…”

Global News on Greening

From the April 27 issue of the Christian Science Monitor. Gregory Lamb asks, “Is a Bad Economy Good for the Environment?”

The phrase “It’s not easy being green” may never seem truer than during this economic slide. For the first time in 25 years of asking the question, the Gallup Poll recently found that a majority of Americans, 51 percent, say that economic growth should be given priority over environmental concerns. As recently as 2000, only 23 percent of Americans wanted the economy considered first, with 70 percent saying the environment should rank higher.

But a number of environmentalists and economists, while concerned about changing attitudes, say the picture is far from one of total gloom. For one thing, the downturn in worldwide industrial production has meant fewer greenhouse gases are being emitted, slowing their growth in the atmosphere and, in turn, the pace of global warming.

Read more at: http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/04/27/is-a-bad-economy-good-for-the-environment/

From the Voice of America comes this encouraging story dated April 27 by Zulima Palacio describing the seven winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize for their dedication to the environment. For example:

• In Indonesia, Yuyun Ismawati initiated a campaign of waste management, helping to solve problems of employment, health and environment. “While the world addresses the critical problem of climate change, we must remember that millions of people still lack of access to sanitation and the fundamental right to a healthy environment,” Ismawati stated.
  
• In Suriname, in the northeastern coast of South America, Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini successfully organized their communities to win a landmark court ruling granting local people the right to control resource exploitation in their territories. “Our territory in Suriname is the only place that the Saramaka [tribe] can call home. We are obligated to protect it so that future generations of Saramaka can live there in freedom and in our own land,” Jabini said
  
• In Bangladesh, attorney Rizwana Hasan led a legal battle to increase government regulations as well as public awareness that decommissioned ships from around the world are sent to Bangladesh, often with toxic contaminants, where they are dismantled by unskilled, low paid workers. “We want the global community to know that our territory is not to be treated as a dumping site,” Hasan said.
  
• Toxic chemicals, from obsolete stockpiles in the old Soviet bloc, are still sometimes used by poor farmers.  Russian scientist Olga Speranskaya organized activists throughout Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus to tackle the problem. “We are all at risk and babies get their first dose of toxic chemicals in the womb and the second when they start breast feeding,” she stated.
  
• In the African nation of Gabon, Marc Ona Essangui has been arrested several times for his defense of the National Park system and its rainforest and rich biodiversity. From his non-governmental organization called “Brainforest” and his wheelchair, Essangui led the efforts to expose and block government agreements to develop large projects for a mine, a dam and railroads as well as a deep-water port facility.
  
• West VirginiaN Maria Gunnoe, a medical technician by training, was recognized for fighting a hard battle against the coal industry, to promote cleaner energy solutions. “This recognition proves that the intimidation tactics of the coal industry no longer works.” she said.

  Read more at: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-04-27-voa46.c

From the Transnational Institute comes this story by Medea Benjamin of a conference in Ecuador: A New Network Forms to Close U.S. Overseas Military Bases

In a new surge of energy for the global struggle against militarism, some 400 activists from 40 countries came together in Ecuador from March 5-9 to form a network to fight against foreign military bases. The conference began in Quito, then participants traveled in an 8-bus caravan across the country, culminating in a spirited protest at the city of Manta, site of a U.S. base.

While a few other countries such as England, Russia, China, Italy and France have bases outside their territory, the United States is responsible for 95% of foreign bases. According to U.S. government figures, the U.S. military maintains some 737 bases in 130 countries, although many estimate the true number to be over 1,000.

A network of local groups fighting the huge U.S. military complex is indeed an “asymmetrical struggle,” but communities have been trying for decades to close U.S. military bases on their soil. Their concerns range from the destruction of the environment, the confiscation of farmlands, the abuse of women, the repression of local struggles, the control of resources and a broader concern about military and economic domination.

Read more at http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?act_id=16454&menu=11e

Our Questions for Kevin Danaher:

Kevin Danaher is co-founder of Global Exchange in San Francisco, founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals held in San Francisco, Washington, and other cities, and Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center, a green project in San Francisco.

· As if you don’t already have enough projects to handle, you have recently come up with a new project: From Empire to Global Healing: Turning US Military Bases into Eco-Development Centers. Please tell us about this project.

• How would these Centers work? What would happen there? What would they look like? [Could you describe a hypothetical or actual military base and how it might be transformed?]
• Can the US really afford to give up its foreign military bases? What about perceived threats to national security?
  
• Who would pay for this? How would it be paid for?
• You have written that these places could “Provide large enough space for permaculture “universities” to train the trainers who will then go out and instruct communities on green economy issues” and that “We have already developed green curriculum that can be used to train people in the key skill sets of the next economy: the green economy.” What is that curriculum?
• You have said that your Empire to Global Healing project might “Unify diverse global social movements that are now separated by tactical issues.” How do you see that happening?

• What kind of action would be required to launch this program? Could the Commander-in-Chief do it by fiat? Would congressional action be required?
  
• What are your next steps in launching the program?
• How could listeners become involved?
  

Kevin can be reached at Global Exchange in San Francisco www.globalexchange.org/

Do-It-Yourself

Locally, a group known as the Chico Beyond War Coalition has formed to focus on demilitarizing the budget. Over 58% of every discretionary U.S. tax dollar goes to support the military, and the true cost of war to the U.S. is over one trillion dollars annually. For information on the Beyond War Coalition, send an e-mail to ChicoBeyondWar@yahoo.com

Playlist for Ecotopia #30

Teach Your Children, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Nature’s Way, Spirit

Mother Earth, Neil Young

Peace Train, Cat Stevens

What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace,Love and Understanding, Elvis Costello

I Remember California, R.E. M

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