Ecotopia

Date: 8 November 2011

Tonight we’re learning about and celebrating California native plants. Our guest is Germain Boivin, founder and owner of Floral Native Nursery, which has 150- species of California natives.  We’ll also be sharing some poetry about the beauties of California native plants.

Listen to the Program

California Plant Poetry

Honeysuckle Hunting

It could be anywhere.
We stand stock still and sniff
the green breathing of daisy, vine and leaf.

Ears pricked and noses high,
we listen for the drowsy hum
of yellow golden honey.

There, on the fence!
We’ll steal it from the bees,
pluck a tiny trumpet blossom,

pinch the end with finger and thumb,
like biting the vanilla-dripping tip
of an ice cream cone.

Slowly, slowly, draw it out–
pull the stamen through, tongue poised
to catch one crystal drop of sweetness.

~Heidi Mordhorst
from Squeeze: Poems from a Juicy Universe, 2005

Western Redbud

spring unleashed, it blooms
pink kisses flirt with the sun
Kool-Aid explosion

— Susan Taylor Brown
From her website http://susanwrites.livejournal.com/224471.html

California’s Cup Of Gold

The golden poppy is God’s gold,
The gold that lifts, nor weighs us down,
The gold that knows no miser’s hold
The gold that banks not in the town,
But singing, laughing, freely spills
Its hoard far up the happy hills;
Far up, far down, at every turn,–
What beggar has not gold to burn!
Joaquin Miller
http://www.solopublications.com/jurn6101.htm#Cup%20of%20Gold

In this poem, the mountain mahogany  is used as a chisel stick and the occasion for metaphors about the past—the notches and the smoothness describing a history.

The Tally Stick

Here from the start, from our first of days, look:
I have carved our lives in secret on this stick
of mountain mahogany the length of your arms
outstretched, the wood clear red, so hard and rare.
It is time to touch and handle what we know we share.

Near the butt, this intricate notch where the grains
converge and join: it is our wedding.
I can read it through with a thumb and tell you now
who danced, who made up the songs, who meant us joy.
These little arrowheads along the grain,
they are the births of our children. See,
they make a kind of design with these heavy crosses,
the deaths of our parents, the loss of friends.

Over it all as it goes, of course, I
have chiseled Events, History–random
hashmarks cut against the swirling grain.
See, here is the Year the World Went Wrong,
we thought, and here the days the Great Men fell.
The lengthening runes of our lives run through it all.
See, our tally stick is whittled nearly end to end;
delicate as scrimshaw, it would not bear you up.
Regrets have polished it, hand over hand.
Yet let us take it up, and as our fingers
like children leading on a trail cry back
our unforgotten wonders, sign after sign,
we will talk softly as of ordinary matters,
and in one anotherís blameless eyes go blind.

Found on J J’s blog
http://rustybear.blogspot.com/2006/04/favorite-poem-tally-stick.html

The final poem we’ll share with you has elements of a creation myth. Here we see how  the ponderosa comes to dominate the sky.
Tale of the Mighty Ponderosa and the Sky

Once, the mighty ponderosa
Scratched the underbelly
Of the piercing blue sky.
Letting it know
That its reign over
The mountain top world
Was over.
But the sky
Had the clouds
And clouds
had Thor
hiding in its midst
It sent a jolt
Of electric light
Upon its crown and
the once green tree
turned a shade of black.
Bruised and bare,
So the sky saw,
believed the ponderosa
learned its lesson well
And held back its fickle
Temper.
But the ponderosa,
that mighty tree,
stayed its ground
on top of that mountain.
Until the sky realized
that nothing will move it
and it was here to stay.
So the sky never bothered
when the mighty ponderosa
recovered and when
it grew green again.
It scratched its underbelly
but the piercing blue sky
Saw its futility and
Let it grow
and grow
until it became
the true king of its
Mountain top realm.

Online at Hellum.com
http://www.helium.com/items/1606200-ponderosa-pine
Our Discussion with Germain Boivan

Germain Boivin founded the FLORAL NATIVE NURSERY in 1998. In his years in California, he has learned about and experimented with California native plants and plant breeding.

1. How did you become interested in California native plants?

2. How do you know what’s a native plant and what’s been introduced to the region?

3. What sorts of native plants are there in California?

4. How do you go about propagating native plants? What has been your process of developing for market 150 California natives?

5. What is the value of using California native plants in gardening and landscaping?

6. What are some of the most popular plants that grow in our region?

7. Are there micro climates or micro environments in our region? Are there some plants that grow better in the valley and some in the foothills?

8. I learned from your website that you also provide native plants for habitat restoration. That must involve a lot of plants that can become relatively self-sufficient pretty fast. Can you tell us about the process of habitat restoration? What sorts of plants are particularly useful for restoration?

9. When is the best time to start a native plant garden? What kinds of conditions do native plants need?

10. We were interested that some of the plants you propagate are labeled as having medicinal uses by Native Americans. That must be interesting research. How did you learn about native medicinal uses?

11. I know you also provide resources for people who want to learn more about California natives as they are developing ideas for their gardens. Can you tell us about some of those resources?

12. How can people contact you?

Announcements

If you have an announcement of an event you would like us to include on Ecotopia, please contact us at ecotopiakzfr@gmail.com

Also, we’re always interested in learning more about what you’d like to hear on Ecotopiia. If you have ideas for shows of local, regional, national or international import, please contact us at ectopiakzfr@gmail.com. We’re also interested in feedback on shows we’ve done.

You can also contact us through our Facebook page. Just go to Ecotopia KZFR 90.1. You can become our friend and you can post on our wall.

We’d like to thank our good friend Sue Hilderbrand for sitting in for us last Tuesday on Ecotopia.

We’ll be away again next week, and Bill Fritsch will be here on Ecotopia. Please join him.

Playlist for Ecotopia #163

• Back To The Garden    4:03    Jason Webley    Against The Night
• Pagan Poetry    5:40    Björk    Livebox Sampler
• Royal Garden Blues    1:54    Don Byron    Bug Music
• Golden Poppy    3:09    The Mother Hips    Do It On The Strings: Acoustic Live in California November 2010
• Red Bud    7:32    MaMuse    Strange And Wonderful
• Garden Song    5:34    MaMuse    All The Way

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October 18, 2001

Tonight’s Program

It is a special pleasure for us to be on the phone with Mary Lou  Sharon, who was a classmate of Steve’s at Naugatuck High School in Connecticut.  They recently met up at a high school reunion,  and we heard Mary Lou’s amazing story of activism in essentially shutting down a toxic dump in our home town.

Listen to the Program

Our Questions for Mary Lou Sharon

By way of background, when Mary Lou and Steve were kids in the 1950s, Naugatuck, Connecticut, was an industrial center, producing sneakers, synthetic rubber, agricultural chemicals, and brass products.  The Naugatuck River held no life and changed color with industrial discharges, and the town often smelled of diverse chemicals that went up the stacks.  Most of that industry is now gone, but the effects remain, and that’s where Mary Lou Sharon came in.

Your story begins in the 1960s, when you noticed trucks headed up the road near your house carrying waste to the Hunter’s Mountain landfill.

•What was in those trucks?
•Why were you concerned?
•You formed a citizen’s action group.  Who was in it and what did you try to accomplish?
•In 1983 Hunter’s Mountain–renamed Laurel Park Landfill–was declared a Superfund Site.  Didn’t that take care of your concerns?
•In the course of your activism, you were threatened and vilified.  Why were some elements of the town opposed to your work?
•Despite the contamination, developers still wanted to build a number of homes up on Hunter’s Mountain.  Please tell us the story of that fight.
•In April 2011, you were declared Honorary Mayor of Naugatuck as part of Earth Day.  What did you do during your brief time in office?
•What advice do you have for other activists who are fighting difficult battles trying to preserve the environment and our health?

Thank you, Mary Lou Kosko Sharon, for being with us tonight and telling us this inspiring story.  Our home town is a much better place to live, thanks to you, and we’ll look forward to seeing you down the road at Naugatuck High School reunions.  Listeners, if you would like to learn more about this story, here are some links:

NY Times: “Action on Dioxin”  http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/14/nyregion/the-region-action-on-dioxin-in-connecticut.html

NY Times:  “Two-Year Battle Won at Dioxin Site”  http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/15/nyregion/two-year-battle-won-at-dioxin-site.html

Naugatuck Patch: “Mary Lou Sharon: Naugatuck’s Earth Day Mayor for the Day”  http://naugatuck.patch.com/articles/mary-lou-sharon-naugatucks-earth-day-mayor-for-the-day

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Date: October 11, 2011

This week we will take up two Ecotopian topics. In the first part of the program, we’ll talk about electric automobiles. Our guest will be Stephanie Janczak, Manager of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Policy for the Ford Motor Company. She’ll be talking about some of the ways in which Ford is preparing to meet consumer demand for all-electric vehicles.

And then we will speak with Carl Ochsner, who is the Executive Director of Work Training Center, Inc., the northstate organization that provides services to people with disabilities and, among other projects, runs Fair Street Recycling.

Sorry, no show recording available this week 🙁

Our Questions for Stephanie Janczak

Stephanie is Manager of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Policy for the Ford Motor Company. Ford recently sent out a press release describing “20 Cool Places to Charge Your Electric Vehicle,” including some in California as well as others from Hawaii to New York. We’d like to ask about those places and, more broadly, how electric cars can contribute to a cleaner environment.

• Please tell us a little about your job with Ford. What are your responsibilities concerning “Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Policy”?
• The Ford web site makes distinctions between hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and all-electric cars. Please tell us a little about those distinctions. Which of those can use a charging station?
• Ford is introducing an all-electric Focus with the 2012 models. You are also promoting one called the C-Max. Can you tell us about these? What is their mileage range between charges? How long does it take to recharge?
• Why did you decide to make a list of “20 Cool Places” to charge your electric vehicle? The closest site to Chico on your list is Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco about 170 miles from Chico. Are there other, possibly less cool places in California that are closer to home for us? How does one find a charging station?

[Note to Stephanie: One cool place NOT on your list is the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico. Sierra Nevada has an impressive record of sustainable business practices and has a charging station in the parking lot outside its restaurant. Generally speaking, we found it difficult to go online and fine charging stations.]

• Who owns and operates these charging stations? Do they work with all varieties of electric vehicles currently on the road? What does it cost to fill the tank of an electric, and how does that compare with gasoline or diesel fillups–what’s the cost per mile?
• Electric trolly buses in San Francisco are boldly labeled “emission free.” While that’s technically correct, it’s misleading, since the electricity they use may be generated in conventional coal and gas generating plants that are not “emission free.” And there is the cost of transmitting electricity from the generator to the electrical outlet. Is something like the 2012 electric Focus really cleaner than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle?
• Some states (including California) are demanding that power companies increase their percentage of “clean” electricity from green sources. How do you see this affecting not only electric vehicle sales, but the future of the planet? (Will there ever be–or is there already–a practical all-electric with solar panels on its roof?)
• What does Ford project to be the demand for all-electrics (and electricity-based variations) over, say, the next 20-30 years?
• Where can people learn more–specifically about Ford’s all electrics, and more broadly, about charging stations and the future of electrics?

http://www.ford.com/technology/electric/

Our Conversation with Carl Ochsner

Carl Ochsner is the Executive Director of Work Training Center, Inc., a northstate organization that provides services to people with disabilities. Most of us know WTC best for its Fair Street Recycling Center (with locations in Chico, Oroville, and Magalia), but the WTC has an amazing range of programs we’d like to hear about.

• WTC has been around since 1949. Why and how was it created? What is your mission?
• Because most of us are familiar with Fair Street, please explain that as an example of the kinds of programs you run. Where do the trainees come from? How long are they at the Center? What skills do they learn?
• You have a number of other programs. As our time permits, let’s discuss several:
  • Creative Learning Center
  • Do It Leisure
  • Joe McGie Center
  • Made in Paradise
  • The Landscape Service
  • Sierra Center
  • Social Skills Training
• Please tell us about funding for these programs. We know that the projects produce some income, but are their outside public or private sources as well?
• What are your hopes for the future for WTC?
• You have a Turkey Dinner and Raffle coming up in November. What will that event involve? Is it open to the public?
• How can our listeners learn more about your work and/or become involved?

We’ve been talking with Carl Ochsner, Executive Director of the Work Training Center. For sure, listeners, visit their website <http://wtcinc.org/home/welcome.html> and see what you can do to participate in this very Ecotopian project.

Playlist

• AC/DC 5:05 Andrew Lloyd Webber Starlight Express (Soundtrack from the Musical) Soundtrack
• Route 66 7:12 The Brian Setzer Orchestra The Ultimate Collection Rock
• Recycle Reuse Reduce 2:46 Heidi Howe Give a Hootenanny! Country
• reduce, reuse, recycle 3:35 The Junkman (Donald Knaack) Junk Music 2 Rock
• Land of the Future 5:14 Josh Lasden & Synoptic Futuristic Music EP Part 2 Dance & DJ Powerhouse 2:56
• Don Byron Bug Music Jazz

Playlist

• AC/DC 5:05 Andrew Lloyd Webber Starlight Express (Soundtrack from the Musical) Soundtrack
• Route 66 7:12 The Brian Setzer Orchestra The Ultimate Collection Rock
• Recycle Reuse Reduce 2:46 Heidi Howe Give a Hootenanny! Country
• reduce, reuse, recycle 3:35 The Junkman (Donald Knaack) Junk Music 2 Rock
• Land of the Future 5:14 Josh Lasden & Synoptic Futuristic Music EP Part 2 Dance & DJ Powerhouse 2:56
• Don Byron Bug Music Jazz

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Date: October 4, 2011

Our guest tonight on the phone is Peter Sale, an ecologist awho is Assistant Director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health in Hamilton, Ontario. He has taught at Sydney University, the University of New Hampshire, and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor. His book is called Our Dying Planet: An Ecologist’s View of the Crisis We Face.

Listen to the Program

Part I: Our Dying Planet

• Could you begin by telling us about United Nations University and the institute where you work?
  

• How are you aligned with the U.N.?  What areas/issues does the institute investigate?  

• Why did you decide to write this book? It’s called “our DYING planet”. Is the situation really that severe?
• You have been studying planetary ecology throughout your career, and the ecology of coral reefs is your particular area of expertise. Tell us a bit of your history with reefs.
  • You’ve called reefs particularly fragile and a canary in the ecological mine. What does the future hold for reefs?
  • Which of our various impacts is most critical for coral reefs: overfishing, pollution, climate change, tourism, cruise ships, acidification, others?
  • There are some success stories with coral reefs that have been brought back from the brink. Could you tell us about some of these? What lessons can we learn from those stories?
• To get back to larger picture of the “dying” planet of: How will the various imacts you’ve mentioned (and others) affect the total ecosystem?
  • Focus on the complexity of “overfishing”-loss of diversity, older fish, the whole ecology of the ocean.
• Can we predict the sum total of environmental impacts? You emphasize in your book that we can’t just focus on one ecosystem at a time. Exponential change.
• What’s the future of the planet if we don’t change the pattern? The dodo, the polar bear.

Part II: Reversing the Trends

This is Ecotopia on KZFR and we’re talking with Peter Sale of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health in Hamilton, Ontario. His book is called Our Dying Planet. We know that you don’t consider the situtation totally hopeless. In this segment, we’d like to talk with you about steps we can take to reverse the decline of our ecosystems.

• In one chapter, you discuss “our unrealistic belief in the balance of nature.” What has been our belief and why is it unrealistic? How have we understimated the effects? Butterfly effect?
• You talk a bit about the ‘human footprint’ being too large. What is the human footprint? How is it possible to use more than the Earth produces? What will happen if we continue to behave as at present?
• Eventually, the planet will run out of oil. Is this a partial “solution” to healing the planet–that we’ll have no choice but to cut emissions?
• You have a chapter on the human population, and suggest that it will be very difficult to deal with our impacts on the natural world without addressing this ‘problem’. What is the problem here, and what right do you have, as a marine ecologist, to discuss solutions to human population growth?
• Your final chapter describes alternative futures–plural. Please tell us a little about the range of futures you forsee and the major variables that could lead to them. Four choices for the future:
  
• Belvedere–me first, “colonialism at a new level”
• Woodstock–cut back on environmental usage
• Technopolis–techfixes, including alternative methods of food production–invent ourselves out of our dilemna
• New Atlantis–“…use our technological expertise and ethical principles to build a civilization that lives in harmony with the natural world while still aspiring to fosster all the creative exuberance of which humanity is capable,” valuing “every human lifewhile actively constraining our natural capacity to grow more abudant.” (287)

• Given the enormous amount of research you have done, are you optimistic at all about the future of humankind and the planet?
• What recommendations do you have for listeners who want to take a more active hand in saving our dying planet?

Our guest has been Peter F. Sale, author of Our Dying Planet: An Ecologist’s View of the Crisis We Face, just released by the University of California Press. If you are interested in learning more about his work at the Institute for Water, Environment, and Health go to inweh.unu.edu/. You can read more about his book at petersalebooks.com, and ucpress.edu.

Thank you Peter Sale.

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20 September 201

About the Program

Our first guest tonight is local activist, Peter Hollingsworth. He’s here to tell us about the work he’s doing with Moving Planet Day and 350.org, local and global efforts to stop climate change. Moving Planet Day will be a part of the Earth Dance Celebration, to be held in Chico, this Saturday, September 24,

Later in the show we’ll talk with Richard King, Director of the Solar Decathlon. He’ll tell us about Solar Decathlon, a competition in which “The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency.” The results of that competition will be displayed in Washington D.C.. September 23-October 2.

Listen to the Program. (Unfortunately, we were only able to record the interview with Peter Hollingsworth–well worth listening to.)

Out Questions for Peter Hollingsworth

Our first guest tonight is Peter Hollingsworth. He has brought together a couple of important events and initiatives that will be part of the focus at Earth Dance this coming weekend. Welcome, Peter Hollingsworth.

1. You’re involved in helping bring attention to 350.org and Moving Planet Day.  Can you start by telling us about 350.org?

2. What is the mission of 350.org? And why is it called 350.org?

3. Who’s involved in 350.org?

4. How is 350.org different from other organizations that are taking up the issue of climate change?

5. What are some of the projects that 350.org has sponsored or initiated?

6. Can you explain the science of 350.org?

7. What’s the relationship between Moving Planet and 350.org? What’s the goal of Moving Planet?

8. Who organized Moving Planet?

9. What will be happening in Chico? Are there other regional events?

10. What motivated you to become apart of these actions?

11. How can people in Butte County become involved?

You can find out more about 350.org, by what else, going to www.350.org. And there’s more about Moving Planet at www.moving-planet.org.

Our Conversation with Richard King

On September 23-October 2, in Washington D.C., there will be an interesting sight on the Captiol Mall—a village of 19 solar-powered houses, created by college teams from around the country and around the world. With us tonight is our guest, Richard King,, director of the Solar Decathlon, who will tell us more about this Department of Energy competition.

1. First begin by telling us what the Solar Decathlon is. What is the goal of the Solar Decathlon?
2. What is the history of the Solar Decathlon? When did it begin? What was the impetus for its creation?
3. Who’s participating in the Solar Decathlon? How do students get involved? How many people are usually involved in a team?
4. What are the criteria for the creation of the houses? What are builders and designers trying to accomplish?
5. How do the houses get transported to Washington? What’s the process of getting them constructed like? How long does it take?
6. What will visitors to the Capitol Mall see when the come to Washington in the next couple of weeks?
7. What are some other events that are going on at the Solar Decathlon?
8. Have there been important innovations or inventions that have come out of the Solar Decathlon? What kinds of exciting discoveries have students made?
9. Tell us about how people going to D.C. might participate in the Solar Decathlon. Can they tour the houses? Do they need to enroll in the workshops? How can colleges or universities become involved in upcoming Solar Decathlons?

Thank you, Richard King. This sounds like a really exciting venture of the Department of Energy. We wish you luck with it.

Playlist

1. Harvest Moon 5:05 Neil Young Neil Young: Greatest Hits Rock

2. Supernova 4:42 Liquid Blue Supernova

3. Global Warming Blues 3:42 Lenny Solomon Armando’s Pie

4. Solar Power Princess 2:45 Nooshi the Balloon Dude Ready, Set, Go Green

5. Shine on Harvest Moon 3:12 Leon Redbone Double Time

6. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) 3:16 Marvin Gaye What’s Going On

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

8. Clear Blue Skies (LP Version) 3:07 Crosby, Still, Nash & Young

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