Breaking Green

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The inflation Reduction Act is being heralded by many environmental groups as a major victory in the fight against global warming.

But the bill has provoked criticism that it funds harmful false solutions and that environmental justice organizations, communities that they represent, and their concerns were ignored as the $360 billion deal was made.

In this episode of Breaking green, we will talk with Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright. Anthony publicly resigned from the board of Evergreen Action, a group whose stated mission is to build an all out national mobilization to defeat the climate crisis.

In his notice of resignation, Anthony noted Evergreen Action's failure to properly involve or communicate with environmental justice communities during critical phases of creating and passing the Inflation Reduction Act. He says that those left out of the process by the bigger, largely white driven environmental groups are those that will be most directly impacted by the fossil fuel false solutions increased mining and other extractive provisions contained in the bill.

Anthony serves as the Director of Environmental Justice for the group New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. He also served as the policy coordinator and Green New Deal policy lead at the Climate Justice Alliance. Anthony also led the effort to make the former Colorado Health Insurance Cooperative, the first health insurance provider in the state's history to remove transgender exclusions in 2012. He worked as a policy advisor for Senator Elizabeth Warren's presidential campaign in 2020, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns of 2016 and 2020. He also serves on the board of directors of France, the Earth, the Backbone Campaign, and the Center for Sustainable Economy.

This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

Resources

Indigenous Environmental Network statement on IRA

Climate Justice Alliance Statement on IRA

Anthony  Kerefa Rogers-Wright's recent article in Black Agenda Report

Antony Kerefa Rogers-Wright's original notice of resignation.

1990 Southwest Organizing Project Letter

Equitable & Just National Climate Platform

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With the catastrophic failures at Chernobyl and Fukushima, nuclear power has been the cause of some the worst environmental disasters in history.

But, the realities of global warming have created an opportunity for this flagging industry to attempt a comeback by rebranding as a green alternative to fossil fuels.

This rebranding concerns those who have worked to reign in the troubled nuclear industry for decades as they now face one of the most ambitious examples of disaster capitalism that threatens to resuscitate nuclear power and its unique set of environmental hazards as a false solution to climate change.

In this episode of Breaking Green, we will talk with Susan Shapiro.

Susan Shapiro is a New York State environmental attorney..

As co-counsel she brought ground-breaking litigation against Indian Point’s violation of the Clean Water Act for thermal and radiation pollution of the Hudson River. 

She also was the lead attorney on an Article 78 action against the New York’s Public Service Commission for diverting $7.6 billion dollars of ratepayers money to keep aging upstate nuclear reactors open instead of funding renewables.

Shapiro  is a member of Leadership Council of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition),  a board member of Radiation and Public Health Project and GRIP (Gender and Radiation Impact Project.

She is also in the process of writing a book about why nuclear energy is not "zero emissions” and why it is not a solution to climate change.

Shapiro is also an award winning filmmaker and artist. Her paintings can be viewed at susanhillary.com.

Radiation and Public Heath Project can be found at The Radiation Public Health Project.

To learn more about Cold War era nuclear contamination in St. Louis you can listen to this previous episode of Breaking Green, St. Louis Radiation Fire with Dawn Chapman.

This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

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Shawnee Showdown, a film by Cade Bursell, was screened at the Yale Environmental film festival earlier this year. It documents the colorful and successful protests to prevent logging in the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois during the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

The protests along with legal efforts were successful in winning a 17 year moratorium on logging. Now, activists are working to make the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois, the first climate preserve in the United States. The designation would prevent logging and other resource extraction from disturbing the forest in order to allow it to continue to act as a natural and highly effective carbon sink. Supporters argue that allowing natural forest and public lands to stand is an efficient and necessary tool in fighting climate change. 

In this episode of Breaking green, we will talk with John Wallace who is working to make the Shawnee National Forest, the nation's first climate Preserve.

Wallace is a former public land and municipal water source manager, John also worked as an environmental educator from Southern Illinois University's Touch of Nature Environmental Center. 

 As a forest activist on the Shawnee National Forest and public land in and around the southern Illinois region for 33 years, he has taken on public awareness campaigns, tackled pro se litigation and participated in non-violent direct action in defense of the natural world. 

 John is a founding member of the Shawnee Forest Defense! and the 28 -year-old Shawnee Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society (IAS).  

 He is currently the Shawnee Audubon Chapter president and serves on the Land Acquisition and Sanctuary Committee of IAS, the oldest, non-governmental conservation organization in Illinois.  

 John has served as a volunteer land steward for IAS, has a BS in Plant and Soil Science from SIU and has been known to portray the writer, mountaineer and conservationist, John Muir, in living history performances.

You can learn more about saving the Shawnee National Forest at shawneeforestdefense.org.

See the trailer for Shawnee Showdown at trailer.

See photos from the 1990s blockade in the Shawnee at Langelle Photography.

This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

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In 1904, at the Bronx Zoological Park, chestnut trees were dying from a spore borne blight brought to the United States by Japanese chestnut trees that were imported by commercial nurseries.

The American chestnut is now referred to as functionally extinct and forests where they were once the dominant species have long since transitioned from Oak chestnut to Oak hickory forests.

In this episode of Breaking green, we will talk with Dr. Donald Davis, author of the American Chestnut: an environmental history. His exhaustive book explores how the American Chestnut Tree has shaped history as well as the cultural and environmental significance of the once ubiquitous tree.

He also calls the story of the American Chestnut, a cautionary tale of unintended consequences, and criticizes plans to conduct a massive and irreversible experiment by releasing genetically engineered American chestnuts into the wild.

Davis is an independent scholar, author and former Fulbright fellow. He has authored or edited seven books. His book, Where There are Mountains: an environmental history of the southern Appalachians, won the prestigious Philip D. Reed environmental writing award. Davis was also the founding member of the Georgia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, serving as its president from 2005 to 2006. He is currently employed by the Harvard forest as a research scholar and lives in Washington DC.

You can learn more about GE trees at The Campaign to STOP GE Trees.

You can find The American Chestnut: an environmental history on Amazon.

Breaking Green is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

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On March 6th, Famed Civil Rights Lawyer, Dennis Cunningham died of cancer. He was 86.

In his long and varied career Cunningham successfully represented Attica Prison Inmates, members of the Black Panthers. He also represented Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in a case they won against the FBI and Oakland police for violation of their civil rights when they were arrested after a car they were traveling in had a bomb detonate under the passenger seat nearly killing Bari.

Despite having numerous death threats against them Bari and Cherney were named as suspects in their own bombing. They were never charged, and a jury awarded them 4.4 million dollars in a 2002 for the violation of their civil rights.

On this episode of Breaking Green we will talk with Karen Pickett.

Pickett has been a grassroots activist for over 40 years. She has focused on forest and habitat preservation as well as environmental justice, protecting the civil rights of activists, and alliance building with Indigenous campaigns and the labor movement.

She is a founder and Director of the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, Biocentric Media Inc, as well as earlier organizations, including the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment. She is a Board member of the Global Justice Ecology Project and has a decades-long affiliation with Earth First!.

Pickett worked closely with Mr. Cunningham on the trial against the FBI and Oakland police and was a close personal friend of Judi Bari.

Breaking Green is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

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Radioactive waste from the building of the first atomic bomb sits in a landfill with a below ground fire. Dawn Chapman who was featured in HBO's Atomic Homefront  tells Breaking Green how the EPA is again delaying removal seven years after agreeing to a new cleanup plan pressured by the community.

Dawn and other activists from the region promise more pressure as they plan a trip to EPA headquarters as time runs out for a community they say is besieged with illness and childhood cancers.

Breaking Green is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

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In this episode of Breaking Green we talk with long-time activist Alejandra Parra about her experiences during the People’s Uprising in Chile and the hopes of recognizing environmental, social and economic reforms in the new Chilean constitution.

In 2019, Chile experienced intense nationwide protests against neoliberalism with calls for sweeping reform. In response the United Nations moved the UN Climate Change Conference COP 25 from Santiago, Chile to Madrid, Spain.

In 2020 the people of Chile voted in favor of a constitutional convention in order to replace its current constitution that was created under the Pinochet dictatorship. The convention, which grew out of the People’s Uprising, is currently underway with work expected to finished by March. The convention is being attended not only by representatives of political parties, but elected representatives of Indigenous Peoples, independent citizen groups, environmentalists, social justice activists, and is designed for gender parity.

In 2021, Gabriel Boric, a young leftist candidate soundly defeated ultra-far right candidate Jose’ Kast for President. Boric is expected to be seated on March 11, 2022.

Breaking Green is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

As many nations promise net-zero emissions to fight climate change, corporate interests continue to promote offsets as opposed to the actual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the source. So-called nature-based solutions promote a green economy that commodifies nature and reduces ecosystems to a balance sheet of commodities to be traded for license to destroy and pollute elsewhere. Now there is a proposal for Whale offsets.

Breaking Green is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

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Climate change threatens more catastrophic flooding, fires and even food insecurity. In response, agricultural companies are promoting what they call climate safe agriculture. But are huge agriculture companies concerned for our collective food future, or are they leveraging the very real threat of climate change to promote more industrial monocultures, genetically engineered crops and the capture of markets from smaller, independent and often indigenous farmers? 

In this episode of Breaking Green, we will talk to Kartini Samone, a GRAIN activist based in Jakarta.
 
Breaking Green is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

Breaking Green is made possible by donations from people like you. 

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply click here to send a donation or text GIVE to 1 716 257 4187.

Support the show