Ecotopia

Our topic for this program is “Sustainable Fashion.” Unless we are content with monk’s robes or togas, we all use conventional clothing for our families and ourselves. Although fashion standards have become more casual, most people want to be modestly in style.  But we can be more environmentally friendly in how we dress ourselves. In this program we interview Paul Weinstein of Truly Organic Apparel, a company founded “as a way to bring naturally dyed, organic fabric to the Canadian and the US markets.” The parent company,  “Tenfold Organic Textiles,” markets, distributes and sells naturally dyed organic fabric to small to medium sized businesses and crafts people in the US and Canada.”  And we have tips at the end of the program for how to be environmentally conscious when you dress.

Listen to or download Ecotopia #9 online now!

GLOBAL NEWS ON SUSTAINABLE FASHION

• Facts and assertions from Stan Cox, an environmentalist from Salinas, Kansas, in CounterPunch online magazine. He writes: “We’ve already stockpiled enough clothes to last us for years. The average annual shopping haul swelled from $1,550 per household in 2002 to $1,760 last year. That spending spree was prompted in part by what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says was a 30 percent drop in real apparel prices over the past decade. With cheap imports allowing a dollar to buy more, the physical bulk of garb purchased by the average household has risen 18 percent in just five years….” Stan has a lot more facts and information on sustainable fashion, and you can read his article at http://www.alternet.org/story/109065/
• From the Yorkshire Times in the U.K. comes a story asking whether pesticides sprayed on British fields are a “time bomb” for health.  Sarah Freeman writes; “Cotton, for example, may seem harmless, but it is the most polluting crop on earth, using 25 per cent of the world’s pesticides.  For cotton to go from woolly ball to T-shirt it needs to be washed, bleached, dyed and printed – using at least 8,000 chemicals in the process. While many of those chemicals are classified by the World Health Organisation as ‘moderately hazardous’ to ‘acutely hazardous’, the jury is still out on how they, and the pesticides used on the crop to begin with, affect your health in both the short and long term.”  Read her article at  http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Are-pesticides-the-biggest-timebomb.4747190.jp
• And finally, Charlotte Mardon-Heath writes of “Dressing for a Credit Crunch” in the U.K.’s Seven magazine:  “Until recently, organic ethical dressing was more associated with sheep shearers in New South Wales than [high fashion shops]….[But] as the credit crunch bites and a simple purchase becomes more of an investment, organic clothing ticks all the right boxes. While global warming is worsening, ethical fashion arguably quells the mass-production industry and facilitates fair trade with other countries and independent farmers. However, in our fast-paced, self-centred society, it has taken a crisis that affects people on a personal level to realise this on an effectual scale. The time it takes for our economy to recover needs to be long enough to give people an opportunity to re-evaluate how they spend their money so that, hopefully, the more sustainable independents have their foot in the door. As fashion is such a lucrative industry, empowerment of ethical clothing lines will have massive consequences across the world on social and environmental levels. “  http://www.sevenglobal.org/  Her article is reprinted at: www.ethicalclothingonline.com  an excellent site with a number of sustainable fashion resources.

INTERVIEW

Paul Weinstein is President and General Manager of Truly Organic Apparel. You can find them on the web at www.Truly-Organic.com.

DO-IT-YOURSELF SUSTAINABLE FASHION

• The online Green Guide has an article by Janna Leyde that provides a run-down of companies producing—in various ways—green clothing. In the past, green products, like 100% organic cotton, have been very pricey. However, there are some alternatives. www.thegreenguide.com
• We remain healthily skeptical about the Green Wave of products, new or recycled, and no matter how good these products are, there’s still environmental concern about the amount of new clothing material is being unleashed on the world. But www.planetgreen.discovery.com has a number of ideas for reusing clothing through thrift shops, garage sales, and clothing swaps.
• Also check www.greenlivingideas.com for ideas concerning reuse and recycling, plus ideas on how to make your clothing last longer.   And we end with this idea from Green Living Ideas: “There is still much room for improving sustainability in the clothing industry.  By altering our habits and desires to obtain the newest and latest fashions, we can decrease the sheer volume of new clothing that is produced.  By purchasing fewer and more durable garments that are designed to last for more than one season, we may learn to make our clothing into something that we cherish rather than something we consistently seek to replace at the turn of the season.”

PLAY LIST

1. Devil With a Blue Dress On         3:35    Mitch Ryder   

2.  Cotton Needs Picking     4:22    Dan Smith      Good Morning Blues                        

3.  Better Together    3:28    Jack Johnson                                    

4   A Summer Wind, A Cotton Dress          3:55    Richard Shindell       

5  Girls In Their Summer Clothes    5:19    Bruce Springsteen                                

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

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our topic for this episode of Ecotopia is water—where it comes from, how much of it there is, and whether or not there is enough to go around.

Listen to Ecotopia #8 online now!

WORLD AND LOCAL NEWS ON WATER ISSUES

 

 

As Coleridge lamented in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

“Water,water everywhere and not a drop to drink”

 

From Global Citizen Corps comes this summary of clean water issues:

“According to the United Nations Development Program, more than 1 billion people – about one in six people in this world – have no access to clean and safe drinking water while over 2 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. The effects of unclean water often lead to an endless cycle of poverty, conflict, disease and death.  If we continue to follow the current trend, by the year 2025 two thirds of the people in this world will not have sufficient access to clean water. Though industrialized countries have done the most to bring about global climate change, it is developing nations that will suffer most as they lack the finances and resources to quickly and efficiently cope with and adapt to the changing climate.”  http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/

 

 

Erica McCarthy of the Atlantic Council of the United States writes that changes in the water supply and other environmental problems are linked to the potential for violent conflict. She says: 

 “Climate change will likely worsen the state of already scarce resources.  Many water resources are shared by more than one country, a situation ripe for interstate violence when the resource runs low.  Darfur andSomalia have already seen conflict over competition for arable land, which is likely to become less available with anticipated climate impacts.… These trends are most prevalent in those countries that lack the social institutions to handle the increasingly stressful scenarios.  This not only leads to unrest and distress within these countries, but also results in their citizens seeking shelter in places better equipped to deal with the changing environment.  Some estimates suggest that by the middle of the century, 200 million people may be permanently displaced ‘climate migrants.’  Such anticipated migration will undoubtedly lead to security stresses across the globe.”  http://acus.org/new_atlanticist/climate-change-will-be-more-severe-2025

 

Locally, in an article in this week’s Chico News and Review,  Robert Speer asks:

“Have you seen Lake Oroville lately? If so, you know California is running out of water. Reservoir levels are at historic lows, demand is at historic highs, we’re in the third year of a drought, salmon populations are crashing, the Delta is in decline, and global warming promises to make things even worse. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast, provides habitat for 700 native plant and animal species. Experts agree it is in serious, long-term crisis. Fish are declining, its levees are weak, global warming threatens rising sea levels, and water quality is worsening.”  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=881324

 

 

 

INTERVIEWS

Our first guest is Chris Wood, author of a new book called  Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America (Raincoast Books) that investigates water supplies in North America and beyond and makes some predictions about whether we’re in the soup or maybe whether we’ll have enough water to make soup. Our questions for Chris include: 

• Your title doesn’t ask whether the will be a water crisis in North America, but declares that it is coming. What do you see as the dimensions of the crisis?
• Your book is about North America, not just the USA. What do you see as the role of Canada in this issue? 
•  You suggest that our “water wealthy” neighbors may not want to help us out. Do you see possiblities for cooperation?
• Why not South America?
• Your book also links together wildfires, hurricanes, floods, crop failures and suggest that these are not “random events,” but are linked to the Dry Desert phenomenon. Please explain.
• Who can help us solve this crisis? Is this a government issue?  Can the private sector be involved? Can individual citizens do anything other than install low-flow shower heads and not run the water while brushing their teeth?
• Is the outlook as bleak as it seems? What do you see as hopeful directions to solve the Coming Water Crisis?

Then we talk with Jim Brobeck of the Butte Environmental Council, who tells us about BEC’s efforts to bring a halt to exploratory drilling that may be an unfortunate prelude to shipping Butte County water to the thirsty southern half of California. Some of our questions include:

 

• Please explain the large picture for us. Who wants water, and what water do they want?
• Who owns the water in the Tuscan Aquifer?  Who would profit from selling it?
• BEC has reservations about Governor Swarzenegger’s $9.3 billion “Delta Vision” plan that aims to recover the Sacramento Delta’s environment while increasing the water supply south. What’s wrong with linking the environment to increased water to slake the thirst of California
• How is BEC proceeding to stop these actions? What legal or other routes are available?
• How can KZFR listeners become involved in the issue? What can one person do?

 

 

BUTTE COUNTY WATER FACTS (from the Butte Environmental Council)

 

•  The vast majority (87%) of Butte County residents depend on ground water for their drinking water.
• The California Department of Water Resources estimates that the Tuscan Formation aquifer, which underlies Butte, Glenn, and Tehama counties holds approximately 30 million acre feet (AF) of water (an acre foot is 325,900 gallons of water).
• Metropolitan Water District of southern California is looking for 300,000 AF from the Sacramento Valley by 2010 and 550,000 AF by 2020.
• Local irrigation districts have been funded by the California Department of Water Resources and the federal Bureau of Reclamation to explore using groundwater to facilitate water sales.                        
• In 1994, 105,000 acre-feet of water were sold from Butte County. Individual wells ran dry, one Durham community well was forced to close, hoses ran between neighbors’ houses for water emergencies, people unwittingly drank polluted water before their wells dried up, and one family was forced to sell their farm.  
• There is currently no real protection for Butte County’s ground water except the environmental review process required under the California Environmental Quality Act.  
• The San Joaquin River is already dewatered in its upper reaches from excess water consumption and a significant portion of the San Joaquin ground water basin has been subsiding. 
• The amount of energy currently devoted to pumping water over the Tehachapi mountain range from northern to southern California is equal to one third of the entire household energy use of southern California.

www.becnettripod.org     

DO-IT-YOURSELF

 

We  recommend the website of Global Citizen Corps http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/.  This is a youth organization for young people of all ages, offering suggestions for ways to help end the water crisis. 

• Measure and reduce your water footprint using their online calculator.
• Sign a petition demanding that the Right to Water be added to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
• Use art to educate others about water issues; enter a poster contest to show how you view water in your life. 
• Play one of WaterAid’s games to learn about water supply systems around the world.
• Organize local debates and events; host a screening of the documentary film “A Journey in the History of Water.”. 
• Raise funds through their Mercy Corps Well Kit.  For $1000 you can sponsor well drilling in third world countries. 

 

 

 

 

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Listen to Ecotopia #7 online now!

In this program, we discuss our recent three-week trip to South America, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile via Patagonia. We were part of a tour that follows sustainable practices as much as possible, and along the way we studied environmental issues in both the cities and the countryside and conducted several interviews:

First we talk with Juan Cabrera, our tour guide leader on the trip. Juan grew up in Argentina, and we asked him about tourism and its effect on the economy and environment of South America.

Next we talk with Steve Anderson, originally from the U.S., who has lived in Santiago, Chile, for over twenty years and is the publisher and editor of Santiago Times, an online daily English newspaper, who also is developing two organic farm projects in Chile.

Finally, we speak with Kat Shiffler and Liz Tylander, most recently from Washington, D.C., who are environmentalists and writers currently working as volunteers on Steve Anderson’s sustainable organic farm in the mountains north of Santiago.

Our music for this program is by Claudio Gonzalez and Alvaro Ferrari, two musicians and songwriters we heard playing on Avenue Florida in Buenos Aires, and whose album, De Poesias y Amore (Of Poetry and Love)  we bought on the spot.  Play list:

La Chacarera (the truck farmer)

La Navidad de Luis (Luis’ birthday)

 Piano Man

Oleo de Una Mujer Con Sombrero  (painting of a woman with sombrero)

Yolanda

Contact them: musicovikylauty@hotmail.com, alferrari@ubbi.com

Web Sites and Resources

Our tour was conducted by Great Adventure Tours.  http://www.gapadventures.com/

Steve Anderson is editor and publisher of Santiago Times.    http://www.santiagotimes.cl/santiagotimes/

We lunched with but were not able to record a discussion with Fernanda Pinochet, Project Director for Fiscala del Medio Ambiente (roughly “Prosecutors for the Environment”), a law firm in Santiago doing remarkable work in getting various global corporations to be more environmentally responsible in the use of Chile’s water, mineral resources, timber, and people.  www.fina.cl

And at a celebration of the International Day of Tolerance at the Plaza del Armas in Santiago, we were impressed by the exhibit of Centro del Patrimonio Mundial (World Heritage Center) of UNESCO describing its environmental protection projects concerning clean water, the biosphere, the oceans, minerals and natural resources, forestry, natural disasters, and cultural diversity in Chile and elsewhere.  www.unesco.org.

We also want to extend thanks and appreciate to Deidre Pike, a Journalism professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, who is currently teaching in Santiago and arranged our interview with Steve Anderson and Fernanda Pinochet.

 

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In this program, we discuss California’s Prop 7, which would mandate that utilities obtain 20% of their power from renewable resources by 2010, 40% by 2020, and 50% by 2025. Representing Yes On Seven is Donald Aitken, formerly Chair of Environmental Sciences at San Jose State. Speaking against the proposition is Jan Smutny-Jones Executive Director of the Independent Energy Producers Association.

Listen online now!

Proposition 7:

• Requires utilities, including government-owned utilities, to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy by 2010.
• Raises requirement for utilities to 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2025.
• Imposes penalties  for noncompliance.
• Fast-tracks approval for new renewable energy plants.Requires utilities to sign longer contracts (20 year minimum) to procure renewable energy.
• Creates account to purchase rights-of-way and facilities for the transmission of renewable energy. 

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF PROP 7 (from the California Voter’s Guide):

 

• 7 is a balanced solution that will reduce the rising costs of energy, and limit the dangers of global warming, including increased wildfires, water shortages, threats to endangered species, and illnesses from heat induced pollution.
• Make California the world leader in clean power technology. Help create over 370,000 new high wage jobs.·         
• If the utilities fail to meet renewable energy standards, utilities are prohibited from passing on penalty costs to consumers.·         
• Proposition 7’s shift to solar and clean energy is guaranteed to never add more than 3% per year to our electrical bills.

FOR FURTHER STUDY:

• California Voter Information Guide (delivered by mail, call 1-800-345-8683)   Online http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/
• Yes: www.Yeson7.net             No:  www.NoProp7.com

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In this program, we interview Greg Melville, author of Greasy Rider, a nonfiction account of his trip across America in a fry-oil fueled 1985 Mercedes Benz stationwagon. Then we speak with Thor Bailey, president of Ag-Biomass, a northern California organization that is seeking to help farmers make better use of the biomass on their lands.

 Listen online now!

WORLD NEWS ON BIOMASS AND BIOFUELS

 

• International Herald Tribune.  In a report released this summer, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (a consortium of mostly EU countries, plus Japan, Australia, and the U.S) concluded that government support of biofuel production in OECD countries was hugely expensive and “had a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security.” http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/07/healthscience/fuel.php

 

• From Science Daily comes a report  on “Discovering Drugs, Biofuels In Tropical Seas,”  (Oct. 7, 2008) — The National Institutes of Health has awarded $4 million to a group of Philippine and American scientists to aid in the discovery of new biofuels technology from marine mollusks for development in the Philippines. Shipworms, the marine equivalent of termites and the scourge of wooden structures in estuarine and marine habitats worldwide, are the focus. A relative of the clam, the shipwworm hosts bacteria inside its gills that produce enzymes to help them digest wood and may prove useful for converting cellulosic biomass into biofuels. Cellulosic ethanol can be produced from cheap and abundant sources such as agricultural residue, fast-growing prairie grasses, lumber mill waste, and even municipal garbage. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081007073930.htm

 

• From Mother Jones comes an intensive investigation of the possibilities for U.S. energy independence.  Paul Roberts, author of The End of Oil, call the notion of energy independence a “populist charade masquerading as energy strategy?” He argues that “energy independence” is primarily being used as a political trick by ethanol cheerleaders, electric utilities pushing coal and nuclear, and supporters of drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. He notes that it’s taken nearly eight years for hybrid cars to reach three percent of the new car market. Despite all the talk about other wonder car solutions—including clean diesel, cellulosic ethanol, plug-in hybrids, hypercars and hydrogen vehicles—those technologies have not even entered the market. If we fully acknowledge that these solutions will take a lot of time to roll out, then we’ll realize that we need to completely redefine the problem. Roberts writes:“Even if we had good alternatives ready to deploy—a fleet of superefficient cars, say, or refineries churning out gobs of cheap hydrogen for fuel cells—we’d need decades, and great volumes of energy, including oil, to replace all the cars, pipelines, refineries, and other bits of the old oil infrastructure.”  http://www.hybridcars.com/oil-dependence/energy-independence-charade.html

 

• From the British newspaper The Sun and the Kicking Tires blog comes a discussion of whether or not Mercedes Benz might produce a fossil-free fleet of cars by 2015.  The Sun reported that a top engineer for Mercedes-Benz said the company could ditch petroleum-fuel vehicles entirely by the year 2015. Blogger Stephen Markely says the story is somewhat  misleading because the engineer, Herbert Kohler, actually said that he saw alternative fuel and electric vehicles becoming dominant in urban areas by 2015. Markely observes that  the story was meant to highlight the rapid progress Mercedes hopes to make in shedding petroleum as the primary fuel for its cars. Ranging from Smart electric city cars to the Mercedes-Benz-branded hydrogen fuel-cell F600 Hygenius, the German automaker is trying to get a jump on the expanding market of alternatives to gas and diesel.  Still, it’s one thing to invest in fuel-efficient technology and another to say that in seven years an automaker will only manufacture cars that don’t need a drop of gasoline. But if a car company were to add more expensive, fuel-saving technology, it would help if its buyers were already used to spending luxury-car money at the dealership. (Merc Plan Fuel Seven Year Ditch (The Sun) Posted by Stephen Markley on July 2, 2008 in Hybrids/Alternative Fuels, Mercedes  http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/07/can-mercedes-be.html )

 

 

OUR GUESTS

 

• Greg Melville is a freelance journalist who’s written for such publications as Men’s Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic Adventure. His book, Greasy Rider, is about his cross country trip in a 1985  Mercedes diesel stationwagon converted to burn recycled vegetable oil.  Along the way, his traveling companion and old college friend, Iggy, challenges him to do additional research on sustainability, including finding out whether Al Gore’s home is truly green and how farmers can make money harvesting wind.  It is published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill,

 

• Thor Bailey is president of the Ag Biomass Council is a California-based nonprofit dedicated to expanding the biomass industry by improving public policy through environmental mitigation and compliance at the grassroots level. Their website says: The focus of the Ag Biomass Council is to provide a means for the California farming community to improve upon the current method of production in managing a sustainable operation. This includes  converting agricultural waste into high-value soil amendment, reducing the volume of material in landfills, improving air and water quality and producing renewable, carbon neutral energy. he Ag Biomass council is online at http://www.agbiocouncil.org/,

 

DO-IT-YOURSELF RESOURCES

 

·         Department of Energy–Exploring Ways to Use Biomass Energy.   “Ever since humans started burning wood or other organic matter to keep warm and to cook food, we’ve been using biomass energy, or bioenergy. Today we can also use biomass to fuel vehicles, generate electricity, and develop biobased products.” Good set of web links to:  Biofuels—Fuel your vehicle with ethanol or biodiesel.  Biopower—Buy clean electricity generated from biomass. (Includes a discussion of animal methane as well as a map of bioresources.) Bioproducts—Use products, like plastics, made from biomass. (including: antifreeze, plastics, glues, artificial sweeteners, and gel for toothpaste). Bioheating:Alternative ways to heat and cool your house.  http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/renewable_energy/biomass/index.cfm/mytopic=50001

 

·         Compost Guide – Composting Fundamentals  Includes numerous vegan recipes for after you finish growing food from your composting system. Introduction to Composting, How to Compost, What to Compos, What NOT to compost, Composing Bins and Systems, Compsoting Resources, Compositing Demonstration Sites, and Contributing Your Own Article on Composting.  http://vegweb.com/composting/

 

PLAY LIST

 

 

1.Big Yellow Taxi  2:17       Joni Mitchell Ladies Of The Canyon       Pop

2.Route 66 3:03        Natalie Cole  Unforgettable: With Love    R&B/Soul

3.Route 66 7:14        The Brian Setzer Orchestra           The Ultimate Collection      Rock

4.Route 66 3:31        The Cheetah Girls   Route 66 – Single     Pop

5. Route 66 3:05       Buckwheat Zydeco  Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire          Country

6.  Route 66  2:59    Beegie Adair Martini Lounge         Jazz

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

 

 

 

 

 

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