EcoJustice Radio

Whisper Camel-Means shares her expertise on the pressing need to protect US wildlife ecosystems, now imperiled at an alarming rate. She offers an Indigenous perspective on the human-induced threats to our living relatives, from habitat loss to climate change. Tune in to learn how we can restore habitats, ensure the survival of endangered species, and honor the profound connection between Indigenous peoples and nature.

As of February 2023, the Center for Biological Diversity stated that 40% of U.S. wildlife and ecosystems are imperiled. A new report on the status of U.S. wildlife conservation revealed that 40% of animals, 34% of plants and 40% of ecosystems nationwide are at risk. Indigenous peoples have always understood our interdependence with Nature, with flora and fauna and our rightful place as a mere part of the whole, living ecosystem. Our discussion today is on Indigenous Stewardship with Whisper Camel-Means, wildlife biologist and enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation [https://csktribes.org/] in Western Montana.

In short order, Western society has decimated much of life on this planet. Conservation scientist David Wilcove estimates that there are 14,000 to 35,000 endangered species of flora and fauna in the United States alone; or roughly 7 to 18 percent of U.S. flora and fauna. Today wildlife on Turtle Island face multiple threats including: habitat loss, climate change, disease, pollution, invasive species and exploitation, the majority of which is human-induced. How might we change our behaviors to create healthy, balanced ecosystems in which all our living relatives can thrive and prosper in their sacred and unique ways?

What do we owe to the Deer, the Elk, the Moose, the Black Bear, the Grizzly Bear, Otter, Wolverine, Bat, Turtle, Bison, Peregrine Falcon, Bighorn Sheep, Trumpeter Swan and the Gray Wolf to name only a precious few? How can we help restore the habitats and species who face extinction and ensure their presence for future generations? Join Indigenous wildlife biologist Whisper Camel-Means as she shares about her life as a wildlife biologist and how we might protect wildlife for generations to come.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/posts/96181630?pr=true

Whisper Camel-Means is the Division Manager of the Division of Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation in the Natural Resources Department for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes on the Flathead Reservation [https://csktribes.org/] in Western Montana. She is a wildlife biologist by training and now an administrator over multiple disciplines including restoration of the Bison Range for the Tribes [https://bisonrange.org/about/]. She works on outreach projects and climate change planning. She is an enrolled tribal member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/indigenous-stewardship-the-future-of-wildlife-with-whisper-camel-means/

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Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 203

Photo credit: Whisper Camel-Means

Check out our special encore presentation of our interview with Human Rights Attorney Steven Donziger recorded in December 2020. We investigate the story of Chevron’s crimes in Ecuador with Mr. Donziger who represented Ecuadorian communities demanding justice in a $9.5 billion decision against them for one of the largest-ever oil disasters.

In this episode, we investigate the story of New York based attorney Steven Donziger who represented Ecuadorian communities demanding justice from Chevron-Texaco for one of the largest-ever oil disasters, where they deliberately dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater, spilled 17 million gallons of crude oil, and left hazardous waste in hundreds of open pits dug out of the forest floor. In a historic judgment, Chevron was found liable by Ecuadorian courts and ordered to pay $9.5 billion.

Chevron says it will never pay. Instead, they launched an extraordinary racketeering and extortion lawsuit against the Ecuadorian and U.S. attorneys, and various consultants alleging they were all lying about Chevron's pollution and that the entire case was "sham litigation." Chevron has turned our guest Steven Donziger into a corporate political prisoner, placed under house arrest, bankrupt, disbarred.

We look into how Chevron, supported by US federal judges, is using retaliatory attacks against Mr. Donziger and the Ecuadorian Peoples, and how their actions set a dangerous precedent and represent a growing and serious threat to the ability of civil society to hold corporations accountable for their misdeeds around the world.

Steven Donziger is a New York-based attorney, human rights advocate, and member of the international legal team that won the historic $9.5 billion Ecuador pollution judgment against Chevron. Steven spent 995 days in detention on what was at most a misdemeanor, both in house arrest and prison, after he refused what appears to be an unlawful order to turn over his computer and cell phone to Chevron as he fought to protect the rights and lives of his Indigenous clients, including their right to confidential communications with their own lawyer. He can be reached at the websites https://www.freedonziger.com/

Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 16-year recycling industry and Zero Waste leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40. In her day job she is the Sustainability and Zero Waste Programs Director for Athens Services.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/criminalizing-activism-steven-donziger-vs-chevron-2/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

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Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 84

The Maasai are Indigenous people from southern Kenya, renowned and revered for their pastoral, nomadic heritage. They inhabit and range across the African Great Lakes region, and have traditionally subsisted almost entirely on the meat, blood and milk of their cattle herds. While many may romanticize the traditional ways of the Maasai, their Earth-based wisdom and connection to the land, Maasai lifeways are now under threat of climate change, overpopulation, and global warming.

On this show we talk with two Maasai youth activists working to make life better, Winnie Seuta Kisioki, founder of My Maasai Woman Community Based Organization that provides education to women, and Samuel Lekato, Founder and Chairman of Enduata Emaa Community Based Organization.

In recent years, the Maasai have suffered the consequences of desertification, deforestation, drought and famine, forcing them to seek new ways to sustain themselves amidst crises of poverty, public health and malnutrition. Additionally, there are pressing societal issues in need of redress, particularly with regard to women’s rights and empowerment. Female genital mutilation has long been a traditional initiation practice that has caused physical injury and death, as well as cut short the dreams and aspirations of women in general.

In this episode, Winnie Seuta Kisioki and Samuel Lekato share about the new dawn in Maasailand: the actions Maasai are undertaking in the realms of conservation, preservation, restoration, and female empowerment to ensure that the rich cultural heritage and legacy of the Maasai thrives on.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Winnie Seuta Kisioki is a young Maasai activist based in Kenya. She studied at Zetech University Community Development and Thika School of Medicine and Health Sciences, where she completed her courses in Community Health. As an activist she advocates for women's rights by creating the community-based organization 'My Maasai Woman' [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552820355583]. She helps women and girls to know their rights and have courage to stand for themselves. Her particular focus is trying to stop Female Gential Mutilation, early marriages, teen pregnancies, and sexual and gender-based violence that tend to pull their girls' dreams down.

Samuel Lekato is currently the Project Coordinator of Green Planet Ambassadors at Enduata Emaa Community-Based Organization [https://enduataemaacbo.com/] in Kenya. Enduata means vision in the Maasai language, and Emaa means the Maasai community. He is a member of YOUNGO, a youth action and climate change club. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and is a passionate Climate Activist. He is a young changemaker in Maasailand who is driving transforming the community to a sustainable future.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 202

On this show, Solstice Celebration Story: Nutcracker and the Shape Shifter. Co-host and Producer Jack Eidt, in his role as a Literary Fiction writer, reads an excerpt of his short story based on The Nutcracker, a two-act ballet, with an 1892 score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The ballet libretto was adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Here we present Jack’s own pro-peace-environmental re-imagining of that story, called The Nutcracker and the Shape Shifter, published in 2022 in the Fifth Fedora Anthology of Weird Noir and Stranger Tales, Published by Borda Books. We also feature excerpts of Tchaikovsky's ballet, the Nutcracker, Opus 71, recorded by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin, featuring Boys' Choirs Rijnmond, Rivierenland and Waterland conducted by Arie Hoek.

The Fifth Fedora Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Fedora-Weird-Stranger-Tales-ebook/dp/B0BFFTG13D

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker - Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest - Complete concert in HD: https://youtu.be/tk5Uturacx8?si=lBvpwbPYTzas7N9K

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/solstice-story-nutcracker-and-the-shape-shifter/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

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Story by Jack Eidt

Background Music: The Nutcracker, Opus 71, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Performance by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin, featuring Boys' Choirs Rijnmond, Rivierenland and Waterland conducted by Arie Hoek

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 201

Wherever land meets sea, global warming is wreaking havoc. As the ocean absorbs heat generated by the burning of fossil fuels and its attendant climate breakdown, its waters swell into overwhelming tides and city-engulfing storms. Glaciers melt, Pacific Islands shrink, Indonesians flee their seaside capital, and North Carolina’s beaches disappear with each passing supercharged hurricane. On this show, we talk with Environmental Reporter from the Los Angeles Times, Rosanna Xia, as she delves into these issues in her book, California Against the Sea.

Sea level rise threatens low-lying coastal and estuarine zones which may have nearly one billion inhabitants worldwide by 2030. Thus, those residents will lose their homes and businesses, maybe their possessions and have to migrate to higher ground, if they survive the transition.

To adapt, governments, industries, and communities must work collaboratively through integrated, multidimensional management schemes that cross the boundaries of natural sciences, environmental justice advocacy, and engineering. Sadly, in our short-term speculative real estate-centric world, we are nowhere close to working together…but there are some positive signs.

Journalist and author Rosanna Xia provides an in-depth look at the complex challenges coastal communities face from rising seas. She draws on years of covering coastal management to unpack contentious issues like managed retreat, where communities acknowledge the ocean's inevitable reclamation of land. We discuss the plight of homeowners and businesses struggling to save their properties as well as innovative solutions like wetland restoration, Xia brings her extensive reporting to bear on how we can create more sustainable and resilient coastlines.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Rosanna Xia is an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times [https://www.latimes.com/people/rosanna-xia] where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. Her work spans feature writing to investigative reporting and engages themes of climate and social justice. Xia’s reporting has uncovered the dumping of toxic DDT waste off the Los Angeles coast; set the record straight on the seizure of Bruce’s Beach from its Black proprietors (prompting an unprecedented reparative land return in 2022); explored the impacts of coastal gentrification; and articulated the dangers posed to shorelines by pollution and heating oceans.  She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting on sea level rise, which inspired the work that culminated in California Against the Sea [https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/california-against-the-sea/]. Her writing has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series.

Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/rising-tides-retreating-homes-california-against-the-sea/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 200

Nature is not fixed, but ever changing. Some of the world’s best known deserts were once fertile grasslands and forests, including the Sahara, the Mojave, the Kalahari, and Gobi deserts. Is it accurate to think of deserts as permanent? Ecosystem succession shows us that Nature can evolve from rock to forest as well as reverse itself back to dust or a barren state. According to National Geographic, drylands account for more than 40 percent of the world's terrestrial surface area. Human-caused desertification and soil erosion is changing the landscape of Earth, with Africa and Asia being particularly vulnerable; many in these regions rely on subsistence farming. Humans are accelerating the degradation of land through deforestation, urbanization, mining, monocrop industrial farming, and conventional ranching, however, turning land into desert is not a fixed or foregone conclusion. Our guest in this show, Alejandro Carrillo, Managing Partner, Grasslands Regeneration Project for Las Damas Ranch, has been working to green the Chihuahuan desert in northern Mexico.

Droughts, floods and erosion need not be permanent realities if we change the behaviors that are causing them. We have the power to align with and assist Nature in a process of evolution that benefits and sustains life. Las Damas, Alejandro Carrillo’s 30,000-acre ranch, is one of the world’s best known examples of what is possible on dry land, these arid and brittle environments that receive low rainfall. Due to rotational grazing and other strategies, like supporting the work of dung beetles and termites, native grasslands have proliferated. Thus, water infiltrates into more productive soil, wildlife and plant diversity thrive, encouraging a microclimate where rainfall increases. Resiliency is possible and Alejandro is here to share his remarkable, regenerative journey.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/posts/94153636?pr=true

Alejandro Carrillo, Managing Partner, Grasslands Regeneration Project [https://www.desertgrasslands.com/], is a regenerative rancher in the Chihuahuan Desert in Northern Mexico. In the last ten years, he has been able to grow tremendous amounts of grasses, forbes, and legumes in a climate zone that receives only eight inches of rainfall, thanks to holistic, rational grazing management. This has benefited both his ranching endeavor and the life in general of all organisms below and above ground. He has also made rainfall more abundant by creating a microclimate for his ranch. Before joining his father’s cattle ranch called Las Damas in 2004, Alejandro worked for several years in the software industry in the financial sector in various countries in the Americas and Europe.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 199

Well, we all know we have a problem with waste, trash, single-use plastics, wrappers, plastic bags. Plastic has become ubiquitous in our daily lives thanks to its convenience and artificially low prices. But it comes with many costs, upstream and downstream, so to speak. Fossil fuels fracked and pipelined to produce it, petrochemical facilities polluting communities, ecosystems, and the climate. Millions of tons of plastic waste are dumped every year, much of which makes its way into the oceans, harming wildlife and ecosystems in the process. Yet the majority of all plastic that has ever been made, some say around 90 percent, is not recycled. But keep in mind that recycling has some value, and we will get to that.

Our EcoJustice Radio co-host Jessica Aldridge, as most of our regular listeners know, has been working for the last sixteen years in the waste industry to bring a sustainability vision and provide solutions to this insane dilemma. We have invited her into the interviewee seat this week to give us an overview of what can be done to confront this problem. And joining us as interviewer this week is Auri Jackson, Environmental Journalist and a veteran of viral video news site BuzzFeed.

For the extended discussion, click here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/93796201?pr=true

Auri Jackson [http://www.aurijackson.com/] is a director and storyteller that specializes in making sustainability and social impact relatable to inspire action and offer hope. She pioneered environmental content at BuzzFeed and created a myriad of viral videos about everything from plastic pollution to climate change. She knows what makes millions of eyes pay attention and she’s passionate about working with non-profits and brands who put people and planet first. She also makes compelling narrative work which has won audience awards at the Austin Film Festival and Outfest. Jackson has been quoted in Vox, profiled in Jr Hi the Magazine, has written an article for Shondaland about zero waste, and has spoken at community events, as well as at corporate events for Nike and BuzzFeed, about how to be an everyday environmentalist.

Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 16-year recycling industry and Zero Waste leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40. In her day job she is the Sustainability and Zero Waste Programs Director for Athens Services.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Ep. 198

Native people inhabited the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts for more than 10,000 years. It is the homeland of many First People, all related to one another. They are called the Sokoki, Pocumtuck, Nonotuck, Woronoco, and Agawam.

Many other tribes visited and still visit this Native homeland. Among them are the Abenaki, Nipmuck, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, Pequot, Mohican, and Mohawk. These tribes are recognized today by states or the federal government as sovereign nations.

Our guest on this encore interview from 2022 is Jennifer Lee, Northern Narragansett Educator and Board member of the Nolumbeka Project [https://nolumbekaproject.org/], an organization dedicated to honoring the Northeastern Tribal Heritage of the Connecticut River Valley. The word Nolumbeka is Abenaki for “the calm waters between the rapids.”

Included are two excerpts from the video series "Indigenous Voices," as well as commentary on the Wampanoag view of the story behind the Thanksgiving holiday.

Historically, tribes gathered in this valley to trade, to fish, to plant, to participate in sacred ceremonies. The sad fact remains that during the wars waged in the colonial period, the Native people were driven from this valley. They blended into the Abenaki, Nipmuck, and Mohican tribes across the Northeast. Often, they integrated into the settler communities. Some were herbal doctors, basket makers, and carvers. They dressed like their European descendant neighbors, but kept the fire of their culture alive.

Jennifer Lee, Grandmother, bark basket maker, and culture bearer, provides histories, insights and perspectives of Native Peoples of the Northeast. Jennifer grew up without knowledge of her Native ancestry which compelled her to seek out the true history and culture of the Northeast Woodlands Indigenous Peoples as an independent researcher. For roughly 30 years, she has held classes in her Eastern Conical Wigwam to tell the stories of Northeastern Native Peoples and share her cultural knowledge. She is co-producer with the Nolumbeka Project of the 10-part film series “Indigenous Voices'' [https://nolumbekaproject.org/indigenous-voices/]. She has been a bark basket maker [http://Barkbasketsbyjlee.com] for 40 years.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/traditions/indigenous-voices-from-the-northeast-past-present-and-future/

Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Intro By: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 156

Photo credit: Jennifer Lee

Humanity has a primordial connection to water. For Indigenous peoples, such as the Māori, Water is an Ancestor, a living entity to be communed with, revered and treated with sacred reciprocity. We owe our lives to the oceans, rivers, lakes and streams of the world. And although marine ecosystems have often been viewed and studied through the abstract lens of economics or science, today, traditional Indigenous knowledge and cultural relationships with marine life and water in all its forms, are at the forefront of a new weaving that blends the ancestral past with the present.

There is a growing wish to restore traditional concepts of marine and aquatic cultivation and care, to address climate change, microplastics, health of marine life, contaminants, and aquaculture. If water is an ancestor, what is our obligation to it? How do we restore a harmonious relationship with water, that supports future generations of life, and preserves the lifeways and worldviews of Indigenous peoples? What do the waters of the world ask of us? What should stewardship of marine ecosystems look like? What might we learn from the Māori, expert navigators of the waters, who have long held that their relationship to the land and waters is sacred. To them: Nature is everything. In this episode, join Heni Unwin, Kairangahau or Research Scientist with the Cawthron Institute [https://www.cawthron.org.nz/], in pondering these questions from her diverse perspectives as a Māori descendant and marine scientist.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

RELATED SHOW: https://wilderutopia.com/international/oceans/ecojustice-radio-waste-colonization-and-plastic-pollution-episode-19/

Heni Unwin is a marine scientist in Te Kāhui Āio or Māori Research Team [https://www.cawthron.org.nz/our-people/heni-unwin/]. Her main role is to interweave science and Mātauranga Māori – the Maori world view – into research projects. She is passionate about caring for the taiao - the environment – that cares for her.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Intro: Jack Eidt

Hosted by Carry Kim

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 197

Photo credit: Heni Unwin

The Right to Repair our electronics and other materials sounds like a no brainer. But historically manufacturers have said otherwise and fought, with millions of dollars, to stop legislation that allows consumers access to the resources to repair items like cell phones, toasters, and even tractor trucks.

On this show Right to Repair takes center stage with guests Liv Butler, Policy Associate for Californians Against Waste [http://www.cawrecycles.org] and Elizabeth Chamberlain, Director of Sustainability for iFixit [https://www.ifixit.com/]. From new legislation in California to the national and global movement and successes, we discuss how manufacturers are being required to provide repair tools, parts, and manuals and examine concern around manufacturer compliance.

Right to Repair is an important element in combating planned obsolescence and empowers consumers and small businesses. Our guests provide a thought-provoking look at this intersection of environmentalism, economics, and consumer rights and access.

You may be surprised to learn that fixing your own items doesn’t actually void the manufacturers’ warranty. We discuss this and much more.

Liv Butler is a Policy Associate at the Sacramento-based environmental advocacy group, Californians Against Waste [http://www.cawrecycles.org]. There, she works on legislation related to Extended Producer Responsibility and recycling issues.

Elizabeth Chamberlain heads iFixit's advocacy work, supporting Right to Repair legislation around the globe and pushing for more repair in green electronics standards. The role blends her commitment to climate action, her love of technology, and her doctoral work in digital rhetoric [https://www.ifixit.com/].

Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40.

Related Show

https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/the-right-to-repair-your-devices-the-corporate-stranglehold/

Articles

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/video/right-to-repair-rally-held-at-the-california-state-capitol-in-sacramento/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/24/apples-surprising-about-face-right-repair/

Resources

https://www.repair.org/

https://pirg.org/campaigns/right-to-repair/

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/

Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Ep. 196