EcoTalk's Archives

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On the Green Front Program for May 21 2009

• 5-21-09 A SHOUT OUT FOR ONE GREEN RADIO SHOW!
• 5-21-09 Josh Dorfman, host and author of The Lazy Environmentalist
• 5-21-09 Anna Cummins and Markus Eriksen: anti-plastic junk crusaders
• 5-21-09 Roz Savage: solo ocean rower

On the Green Front Program for May 14 2009

• 5-15-09 From Betsy's iPhone - at the Summit: Al Gore, Carolyn Revelle, Larry Schweger
  
• 5-14-09 The Climate Project in Nashville for its North American Summit: Attorney Susan Mac Cormac about changing the corporation form
  
• 5-14-09 The Climate Project in Nashville for its North American Summit: David Vasquez about the Sun Train
  
• 5-14-09 The Climate Project in Nashville for its North American Summit: Peter Joseph, emergency physician
  
• 5-14-09 The Climate Project in Nashville for its North American Summit: Tami Coleman
  
• 5-14-09 Hundreds of Grass-Roots Activists and Scientific Leaders Meet in Nashville for Al Gore’s North American Summit

On the Green Front Program for May 5 2009

• 5-07-09 Joey Shepp, Green Expert, Speaker, Consultant
  
• 5-07-09 Mike Korchinsky, Founder of Wildlife Works
  
• 5-07-09 Claudio Miranda, President of Organic Bouquet
  
• 5-07-09 Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Carpets: Confessions of a Radical Industrialist
  

On The Green Front Program for April 23

• 4-23-09 Lewis Perkins of Mohawk Industries about green carpets
  
• 4-23-09 Marie Kerpan about Green Careers
  
• 4-23-09 Kevin Surace about Serious Materials
  
• 4-23-09 Van Jones about green jobs

On The Green Front Program for April 16

• 4-16-09 KoAnn Skrzyniarz, CEO of Sustainable Life Media about the Sustainable Brands Conference
  
• 4-16-09 Rob Wheeler about biochar and the Copenhagen climate talks
  
• 4-16-09 Sloan Barnett about her book Green Goes With Everything
  
• 4-16-09 Beth Greer about Super Natural Home: Improve Your Health, Home and Planet — One Room at a Time

On The Green Front Program for April 9

• 4-09-09 John Marshall Roberts: from rethoric to results
  
• 4-09-09 EcoTravel: Leilani Latimer, Travelocity’s Director of Sustainabilty
  
• 4-09-09 Eco-Travel: Mitch Rofsky, president and co-founder of The Better World Club
  
• 4-09-09 Stanley Selengut about the Maho Bay Club
  

On The Green Front Program for April 2d: Environmental Education

• 4-2-09 Joe Laur about The necessary Revolution and Greenopolis
• 4-2-09 Carleen Cullen and the Cool The Earth progr
• 4-2-09 Kimberly Pinkston, founder of the EcoMom Alliance
  

On The Green Front Program for March 26: Clean Cars

• 3-26-09 Gil Friend of Natural Logic about how to "measure what matters"
  
• 3-26-09 John Marshall Roberts about Eco-Inspiration
  
• 3-26-09 Felix Kramer, Founder, President and CEO of Cal Cars
  
• 3-26-09 Josh Tickell about biofuels
  

On The Green Front Program for March 19: Eco-Fashion

• Marci Zaroff, CEO and Founder of Under The Canopy
  
• Zem Joaquin, CEO and founder of Eco-Fabulous
  

On The Green Front program for March 12

• 3-12-09 Sustainable Life Media Segment: Jeff Mendelsohn of New Leaf Paper Company and KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz (Part 2)
  
• 3-12-09 John Marshall Roberts about Leveraging "Purpose", The Fourth Bottom Line
  
• 3-12-09 Joseph Romm: climateprogress.org, what we should do about global warming
  
• 3-12-09 The Reverend Sally Bingham about her new book, Love God Heal Earth, and more

The Green Lining

Inauguration Eve in DC – Showing my tag which reads: “Black Is The New Green!”

2009 is off to a roller coaster start. For me, and millions of Americans, it kicked off January 20th in Washington on a cold but clear D.C. day. 

Flying into the nation's capitol for 26 hours of  witnessing history, and attending Al Gore's Green Ball (see photo of "New Arrival" poster at the National Portrait Gallery), was an absolute thrill.

But the high, and the honeymoon, did not last long as we've dipped deeper into financial gloom. The malls are quiet, foreclosure and bankruptcy lawyers are busy, and the banks suddenly need our help (and I thought all those bounced check fees were enough!).

On The Green Front

Betsy on Voice America's Green Talk Network and the new On The Green Front Blog.

GREEN MEDIA TRAILBLAZER BETSY ROSENBERG RETURNS TO THE AIRWAVES WITH ON THE GREEN FRONT ON VOICEAMERICA INTERNET RADIO

After a nearly two-year hiatus to “recharge”, “refuel” and “refresh” her decade-long quest to bring green content into the mainstream media, eco-pioneer Betsy Rosenberg is back with a new call-in radio talk show.

On the Green Front with Betsy Rosenberg airs on Voice America’s Green Talk Network today, and every Thursday, at 1:00 p.m. pacific and 4pm east at www.voiceamerica.com (type “Betsy Rosenberg” in the search engine) and /or http://tinyurl.com/bfwhje (direct link).

The program is archived at www.greentalknetwork.com and will soon be available with downloadable podcasts on demand from itunes.

Betsy Rosenberg is an award-winning news reporter, anchor, green radio host and environmental advocate. A 25-year broadcast veteran, Betsy's groundbreaking program, EcoTalk on AirAmerica, was the first green show in the country to air daily, focusing exclusively on environmental issues from the science of climate change, to peak oil, to endangered oceans and species, waste, fuel efficiency and beyond.

Her focus has always been on how these challenges impact humans and how we must all become the solution if we’re to survive, and thrive, on this planet. She has interviewed nearly everyone in the green forefront, from Al Gore to Robert Kennedy Jr. and so many others - including Van Jones, Bill McKibben, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Dr. Jim Hansen and Richard Louv - only now attracting attention from mainstream media.

Betsy has also been a keynote speaker, featured presenter, panelist and moderator at many green conferences around the nation and has been a regular guest on local and national television shows including CNN Headline News and Fox's "Hannity and Colmes."

Betsy was also years ahead of the curve with her gas-roots campaign, Don’t Be Fueled! a national campaign aimed at increasing supply and demand for more fuel efficient vehicles. In addition to producing Green-To-Go radio features (quick tips, lasting impact!), Betsy is a graduate of The Climate Project, Al Gore’s training program designed to better educate the public about climate change. In addition to being a wife, mother, and volunteer with the Marin-based EcoMoms Alliance, Betsy travels and speaks across the country to help raise America’s Eco-IQ by connecting the dots with her unique ability to inform, humor, and inspire.

Ms. Rosenberg is proud to welcome her charter sponsors for the debut of the new program:

Sustainable Life Media, Clorox’s Green Works and Mighty Leaf Tea.

Betsy will also be partnering with Rob Wheeler of the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development, which was recently voted one of the Top Ten Projects on Change.org and communications specialist and author John Marshal Roberts, author of Igniting Inspiration, a persuasion manual for visionaries.

Betsy looks forward to seeing and hearing you On the Green Front on Voice America!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, SAMPLES OR TO SPEAK WITH BETSY ROSENBERG, PLEASE CONTACT LEA SASLAV AT LS PUBLICITY ASSOCIATES Email: leasasla[email protected] Phone: 415.235.6149 and 415.717.4183

We Won’t Be Fueled Again! Or, Teetering On Two Wheels Round a Sharp Corner

An open letter to GM, Ford and Chrysler (Mostly GM!)

Dear Big Three Automakers,

So there you are in Washington DC with your hands outstretched and your hats out, speaking truth to power. “We’re in trouble Mr. Treasury. Please bail us out Uncle Sam, Please don’t let us die Mother Earth, don’chya know we’re too big to fail?” Those were the plaintive cries heard echoing in the nation’s capitol chambers from the mouths of once powerful and almighty Titans of the SUV Age.

You say you have Green Fatigue? That is soooo tiresome…!

Well maybe YOU don’t suffer from “green fatigue” – if you did you probably wouldn’t be reading this but it is a term I’ve heard tossed about in the past few months and each time I hear it – though it goes by other names as well; “green glut”, “green saturation”, “green overload”, etc.  – each time I want to turn red with anger.

Picture by Christina Koci Hernandez

People Against Dirty: Method's co-founder Eric Ryan

Method Products has made a name for itself designing household cleaning products that are not only green but also cool-looking enough to display above the kitchen counter.  Betsy talks with co-founder and "chief brand architect" Eric Ryan. Listen now...

Initially produced for Sustainable Life Media

EcoTalk’s 12 Step Program for “Warm-a-holics*”

Because we all contribute to global warming, be co-dependent no more:

1st Step: Admit you are powerless over your addiction to using energy and that your high energy use has become unmanageable, and then change 10 light bulbs in your house to compact florescent bulbs. Taking this first step saves 1,795 lbs of carbon dioxide per year! 

EcoTalk Sampler

Want to hear what engaging, positive voices EcoTalk could bring to your radio station? Check out Betsy Rosenberg's inspiring mix of green ideas, trends, and personalities, and call your local affiliate to demand that EcoTalk be heard on your patch of this great green Earth. LISTEN

Powering the planet

Powering the planet (pdf) is the title of the inaugural speech given by Nathan Lewis at the California Clean Innovation Conference. At this point we don't have a recording.

EcoTalk's Final Show(?)

This might be EcoTalk's last hurrah as a daily show, but we'll be damned if we won't go out with yet another jam-packed hour of news that will inform the future that us optimists are determined to see through.
If the mainstream media were a little more concerned with concrete plans for our energy future than the cost of somebody's haircut, presidential outside shot Governor Bill Richardson (NM) might have a reasonable shot at the White House this upcoming silly season. David Sandretti of the League of Conservation Voters joins Betsy to outline the big guy's plan to combat climate change. LISTEN (10 min)

Treehugger Radio

Treehugger Correspondent Simran Sethi
reports on France's request that the US show more leadership on reducing emissions, the green rebuilding of tornado-devastated Greensburg, Kansas, the unusual challenge of making the Burning Man festival sustainable, and Paul Hawken's incisive new book "Blessed Unrest." LISTEN (8 min)

Exxpose Exxon

Shawnee Hoover of Exxpose Exxon comments on reports that say that despite their ongoing insistence that they've severed ties with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and renounced smearing the science of climate change, Exxon "is still funding more than $2 million to the majority of climate skeptic groups" closely linked to CEI and their ilk.  LISTEN (8 min)

Richard Heinberg and Madonna help Betsy say Goodbye

Richard Heinberg performs his role as EcoTalk's final (for now) guest with aplomb, discussing Exxon's latest shenanigans as well as his books The Party's Over and The Oil Depletion Protocol.

And finally, Betsy sees us out with a brand new Madonna tune, released as part of the LiveEarth series of concerts to combat climate change: "Hey You." Download it here! LISTEN (12 min)

Toronto Mayor David Miller and the Clinton Climate Initiative

Toronto Mayor David Miller talks about representing one of the sixteen major world cities (plus five major banking institutions) to cut carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with the Greenest of practices and the Clinton Climate Initiative: "This is a win win win win win win." This what it takes! Teamwork, optimism, and practical business.  LISTEN (11 min)

Paul Ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich has been both authoritative and controversial for forty years, so that fact that to this day his  still somewhat taboo advocacy of population control and his other work are cited in newspaper editorials no longer shocks him: "I am an outsider from the point of view of the media. I am an insider from the point of view of science. Scientists don't care what Jerry Falwell, or Limbaugh, or Coulter say. They care about what other scientists say." Join us for a special interview that is as compelling as it is freewheeling.
PART ONE (7 min)  PART TWO (12 min)

Greg & Connie Mattison are taking TV into their own hands with GreenByDesign

Greg & Connie Mattison of the "GreenByDesign", the creative and frisky Green Building TV show that's taking the state of the New Jersey (and beyond) by storm. Connie: "I think there are many out there who don't know where to begin. We thought, 'Well, you can watch us while we learn.'" Greg: "We call ourselves newlygreens." Check it out! LISTEN (8 min)

Keep EcoTalk on the air with Beantrees Organic Coffee!!!

Beantrees Organic Coffee founder Barrie Gromala tells us about the coffee that has won over celebrities like Oprah's chef and Aerosmith, and announces a great deal for all of us and our planet: order coffee from Beantrees.com, and Beantrees will donate one dollar per bag to keep EcoTalk on the air!
LISTEN (9 min)

Andres Edwards and EduTracks

In the growing Green Building Community, Andres Edwards of EduTracks and author of The Sustainability Revolution is among the most thoughtful. Here he opines on Tibet, Deep Ecology, and helping companies like Whole Foods, Pfizer, small non profits, and government agencies make the practical decisions that we will look back on and call wisdom: "When I started, it was a huge learning curve for folks to begin to understand, 'What is Green building?' As it's very rapidly been mainstreamed people are a lot more familiar." LISTEN (11 min)

Ward Hubbell takes Green Building to Washington

Green Building Initiative's Ward Hubbell checks in with EcoTalk following his Senate testimony on how the Federal Government makes Green Building an implicit part of a smart, forward-thinking government: "I think what [the Senate] were trying to do was get educated on the various rating systems out there and the different approaches." Find out about GBI's Green Globes rating system here. LISTEN (8 min)

Frank O'Donnell on Bush's slooow turn towards the light

Clean Air Watch President (and EcoTalk favorite) Frank O'Donnell weighs in on the President Bush's pledge to abide by the Clean Air Act (or at least mouth words to that effect). "I think that the president has come up with a strategy to stall off any kind of action, and essentially put the US EPA into a straitjacket of bureauracratic process," Frank tells Betsy. Does this have to be "a long process", as the President says? LISTEN (10 min)

Best of EcoTalk

This is a rerun of our April 30 program:
Greenpeace Canada Targets Prime Minister Harper   LISTEN (10 min)
Vanity Fair's 2nd Annual Green Issue   LISTEN ( 8 min)
Kim McKay: True Green   LISTEN (12  min)
Lori Pye, Eco-Psychology, and Eco-Suicide   LISTEN (8  min)

The San Francisco Chronicle about EcoTalk: Environmental radio show hopes to flourish -- but it needs a lot of green

Read it all in Joe Garofoli's chronicle with a series of photos by Christina Koci Hernandez.

Your LAST chance to save EcoTalk

Dear Friends of EcoTalk

“EcoTalk’s Inconvenient Truth":

If Green is the new Black why are we in the Red? 

The nearly three years of broadcasting our groundbreaking program on Air America have come with nearly constant turbulence. As the nation's first progressive network with ambitious expansion plans experienced growing pains, EcoTalk weathered them all - but not without significant cost. Selling advertising and partnerships was our only means to cover production costs and that task was made difficult for many reasons.

Paul Hawken: Blessed Unrest

Paul Hawken talks about his most recent book Blessed Unrest : How the Largest Movement in the World Came in to Being and Why No One Saw it Coming.
Part 1  (11 min)  Part 2 (7 min)

Kevin Contreras: Building Green

Kevin Contreras talks about his new PBS program Building Green.
LISTEN ( 10 min)
You can also read his blog.

Treehugger Radio

This week, correspondent Jeff McIntire Strasburg sheds some light on the murky question of ethanol versus biodiesel. We speak with Mark Oberholzer, a runner-up in the 2006 Metropolis Next Generation Design Competition, whose plan for roadside turbines aims at getting something back from the flow of traffic. We also speak with the designer of World Without Oil, an online alternate reality game that simulates a world in the throes of an oil shock.  LISTEN (9 min) 

Best of EcoTalk

This is a rerun of our program of April 27:
Schwarzenegger tells the EPA to shape up  LISTEN (10 min)
Treehugger: Earth Day Hangover Edition  LISTEN (8 min)
PG&E's Nancy McFadden  LISTEN  (11 min)
Clif Bars GreenNotes Program  LISTEN  (8 min)

The Fate of the Dead Sea

As the Dead Sea shrinks three feet per year, can Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories find common ground in these common waters to build a more lasting peace? Oregon State professor and author of Hydropolitics along the Jordan River: the impact of scarce water resources on the Arab-Israeli conflict Aaron Wolf offers his thoughts on the solutions, and the political will necessary to save the Dead Sea. LISTEN (11 min)

Organic Agriculture & the World's Poor

Think only inorganic, GMO, pesticide-laden agriculture can feed the world's poor, and that organic is merely an indugence of the elite? While certain parties have a vested interest in having us believe that, University of Michigan researcher Catherine Badgley tells Betsy about some new studies that suggest that organic agriculture can feed the world. LISTEN (7 min)

The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, SIlent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement

Brad College Environmental Studies Chair Mark H. Lytle checks in to discuss his new book The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement: "[Carson] really believed that the right to endure gave us a right to know. She felt that unless the public had the facts necessary to make an informed decision, they were going to be unwitting victims." We take such citizen advocacy for granted today, but as multinational coporations and the chemical revolution created a brave new world of potential dangers to human beings, Carson was one of the first people to stick her neck out for all of us. LISTEN (12 min)

Verdiem makes computers more energy efficient.

The city of Boston has cut its PC energy use by an astonishing 44 percent with the help of power management software company Verdiem. With power management something we need in every city, Verdiem Vice President of Business Development Dave Harvey tells Betsy what they can offer to any City or Company in the land. LISTEN (8 min)

Best of EcoTalk

This is a rerun of our April 20 program:
Earth Day co-founder Pete McCloskey   PART ONE (11 min)  PART TWO (7 min)
Treehugger: Eco America's Bob Perkowitz  LISTEN (12 min)
Home Depot's New Eco Options  LISTEN (8 min)

Best of EcoTalk

This is a rerun of our April 19 program:
Senator Barbara Boxer gives a damn  LISTEN  (12 min)
Matt Peterson and Global Green USA   PART ONE (6 min)  PART TWO (12 min)    
Orbitz Travel & EcoTourism  LISTEN (8 min)

Media Matters on Glenn Beck and CNN's new low

It's not just Fox News anymore. When you see media degradation on the level that's being seen on shows like CNN's Glenn Beck, who do you call? Media Matters, of course. Betsy alluded the other day to Beck's desperate linkage of Al Gore to Nazis, and here Media Matters Senior Fellow Paul Waldman joins us to give his reaction to the veracity and audacity of such statements, and such newsman as Mr. Glenn Beck. Has CNN hit a new low? "I think they stooped to a new low when they hired Glenn Beck in the first place."
LISTEN ( min)

California Lt. Governor John Garamendi & E-Waste Recycling

We here at EcoTalk are so taken with California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi's leadership on energy, public health, and smart (re-)use of resources that we hope that one day he can simply drop the "Lieutenant" from "Lieutenant Governor". He checked in with EcoTalk today to discuss the new e-waste recycling center opening in San Jose, and the global benefits of acting locally. LISTEN (7 min)

Julia Whitty & Mother Jones Magazine: "Gone"

The latest issue of Mother Jones Magazine features an incredible (and ominous) article by Julia Whitty on the astonishing loss of biodiversity that this Earth has endured in the last century, and the precipitous increase to come, if we don't change: "It's the interaction of lifeforms that make our planet habitable. If we subtract 50% of those lifeforms, we're going to have a serious time sustainaing life on this planet." Listen to this interview, read the article in Mother Jones, and check out Whitty's new book The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific. LISTEN (11 min)


 

Treehugger gets on the 100 Mile Diet

On this week's Treehugger Simran Sethi sits down with Alisa Smith and JB MacKinnon to talk about 100milediet.org and its position at the forefront of the "Locavore" revolution, their book Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally, and the ongoing organic versus local (non-)debate: "Really the system to shoot for is local. Organics will follow, whether certified or not, because almost any small farmer both doesn't want to use chemicals and doesn't have to. When you have a wide variety of crops growing  in a really small area, they're not susceptible to pests in the same way that 10,000 acres of wheat are." LISTEN (9 min)

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Part 3

This is where the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) stuff gets really interesting: whereas the first to parts, released earlier this year, documented the global scientific consensus on climate change and forecast several possible effects, Part 3, to be released tomorrow, offers an array of solutions to minimize the impacts of climate change, and halt any further effects. Will the nations of the world implement these recommendations? Given their obsession with the wording of this document, there's a good chance they will. Center for American Progress Senior Fellow (and author of Hell and High Water) Joseph Romm: "This report has to be signed off on by 120 governments, including the United States, and oil countries like Saudi Arabia. And they can veto any word. So you can take to the bank anything that all those countries agree to." LISTEN (10 min)

Stanford University Climatologist Stephen Schneider

Stanford University Climatologist Stephen Schneider is on the Synthesis Committee for the IPCC report: "IPCC doesn't tell the world what to do. That's the job of decision makers, ranging from everybody out there deciding what car or refrigerator to buy, to government officials trying to figure out what industries to support and what industries to tax. What we will do is survey the literature, summarize the arguments of various sides, from the coal industry to the enviro groups. Then we'll go beyond that and we'll talk about the scientific merits in those arguments." LISTEN (8 min)

200 Chefs rally to Save our Delicious Food

Care about Wild Salmon's future? Grab a fork and eat one. So says renowned chef Alice Waters and the 200 chefs nationwide who are asking Congress to protect wild salmon habitats, and the delicious, natural nourishment that sustains mammals like us. Greg Higgins, Chef and Owner of Higgins' Restaurant and Bar in Portland, Oregon tells Betsy about the Chefs who will be banging their pots on Capitol Hill next week, so that you can eat the good stuff. LISTEN (9 min)