EcoJustice Radio

The act of composting ensures that food scraps and green waste are never wasted, but returned to enrich the soil. It sequesters carbon, and helps to minimize greenhouse gas emissions from landfills. Furthermore, it also enriches the community, creating cooperative human networks, inclusive spaces, and green jobs.

Our guest Michael Martinez, Founder and Executive Director of LA Compost [http://www.lacompost.org], illustrates how composting should and can be available to everyone (no matter if you are in an apartment or single family home). We explore how his organization has grown a successful urban composting model by developing spaces and collaborations with a wide variety of partners including the community, nonprofits, business, and city departments.

For an extended version of this interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/posts/soulful-to-urban-68931890

LA Compost cultivates community through their extensive network of accessible compost hubs including food-scrap drop-off locations and urban composting sites. They have even set up infrastructure at Griffith Park, one of the largest urban parks in North America.

Composting is an act of social justice; supporting food security and localized food systems. This, in turn, improves the environment by implementing restorative practices, which can mitigate negative health impacts and empower communities.

Michael Martinez, Founder and Executive Director of LA Compost - Michael is a former elementary school teacher, a father of two, and the Founder and Executive Director of LA Compost. Michael has grown LA Compost from a group of volunteers collecting organics using bikes, to a decentralized network of community compost hubs that span the most populated county in the country. LA Compost now oversees over 40 compost hubs, all in partnership with existing communities, nonprofits, and organizations committed to healthy ecosystems , while also honoring the community's perspective, lived experience, and leadership.

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.

Listen to our interview from 2018 on Urban Farming and Composting in Los Angeles, featuring Michael Martinez: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/ecojustice-radio-empowering-community-through-urban-farming-episode-15/

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

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

Guest: Michael Martinez

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Created by: Mark and JP Morris

Episode 141

Photo Credit: LA Compost

As momentum continues to grow around the Land Back movement and Indigenous stewardship worldwide, the value of hearing from Elders who have long studied Indigenous traditions and lifeways, whether adopted or of their heritage, is a growing imperative. Their lived wisdom is essential, a gift and treasure for future generations, and continues the cycle of dynamic, inter-generational learning in the traditional way — the way of direct, felt experience and deep listening.

Hear Payoomkawish (Juaneño/Luiseño) Elder Richard Bugbee [https://www.indigenousregeneration.org/] share insights from his decades of studying the way of plants. He emphasizes the importance of reclaiming our ways of seeing, being and understanding the world by reclaiming Native languages and observing the world more closely. Enjoy provocative insights from an elder who has devoted his lifetime to the study of plants and their uses, the reclamation of language, and the practice of material culture.

Richard Bugbee is Payoomkawish (also known as Payómkawichum Juaneño/Luiseño) from northern San Diego County. Richard has ties with multiple Indigenous nations including the Kumeyaay. He is an Instructor of Kumeyaay Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology at Cuyamaca College through Kumeyaay Community College [http://kumeyaaycommunitycollege.com/]. He is the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS) [https://aicls.org/]. Richard is on the boards of Indigenous Regeneration (Mata’Yuum), Climate Science Alliance, and Inter-Tribal Fire Stewardship.

Richard was the Curator of the Kumeyaay Culture Exhibit at the Southern Indian Health Council, the Associate Director/Curator of the San Diego American Indian Culture Center & Museum, and the Indigenous Education Specialist for the San Diego Museum of Man. He was a member of the Native American Council for California State Parks, California Indian Basketweavers Association (CIBA), the Land ConVersation, and the Elders’ Circle for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Richard has been learning traditional plant uses of southern California and the Kumeyaay language from Jane Dumas, a Kumeyaay Elder from Jamul Indian Village from 1980 to 2014. He was the ethnobotanist for the Traditional Indian Health Program through Riverside-San Bernardino Indian Health providing information on the interactions between traditional plant and pharmaceutical medicines.

He teaches indigenous material cultures and traditional plant uses of southern California at many museums, botanical gardens, and reservations, and is an instructor for summer cultural programs for several Kumeyaay tribes. His goal is to use knowledge to serve as a bridge that connects the wisdom of the Elders with today’s youth.

For an extended version of this interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/posts/ethnobotany-fire-68593058

Listen to our related show on Indigenous Regeneration from earlier this year: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/indigenous-regeneration-remembering-the-past-to-inspire-the-future/

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

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

Hosted by Carry Kim

Intro by Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Show Created by Mark and JP Morris

Episode 140

Photo credit: Richard Bugbee

This week we look into the truth about compostable foodservice and packaging with Erin Levine, Resource Recovery Manager at World Centric [https://www.worldcentric.com/]. We delve into environmental concerns, what is actually biodegradable, how fossil fuel dependence fits into the game, and whether we should focus instead on reusable cups, bags, flatware, etc.

We also talk about organics waste, which includes yard waste and plant trimmings, food scraps, and food soiled paper. At approx. 40%, organic matter is the largest contributor of material in the landfill. Waste food makes up around 20%. When this material starts to slowly decompose it creates the 3rd largest source of human related methane emissions in the USA according to the EPA. Methane is a climate super pollutant up to 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Diverting wasted organics away from landfills and into systems like compost can not only reduce methane emissions, it supports healthier soils, stronger plants, and cleaner air through carbon sequestration. Composting is a climate oriented solution that we need and can enact immediately.

That being said, business and public participation in accurately separating organic waste so that it can be composted is key to collecting and processing this material, especially wasted food.

So by using compostable foodware can we divert more food from landfill, reduce ghg emissions, and lessen the consumption of single use plastics?

*Erin Levine is the Resource Recovery Manager at World Centric, manufacturer of compostable products. Erin has been involved with resource recovery for 18 years and in the last decade has focused specifically on the sales and marketing of finished compost. She has supported commercial compost facilities throughout the West Coast and has worked closely with the end users of compost, particularly the agricultural industry. Erin is a Certified Composting Professional through the US Composting Council and a Certified Compost Programs Manager through the Solid Waste Authority of North America.

*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.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

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

Guest: Erin Levine, Resource Recovery Manager at World Centric.

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Created by: Mark and JP Morris

Episode 139

Photo Credit: World Centric

Wetlands are vital to our existence and benefit the ecosystem at large by providing essential habitat for countless species of birds, fish and mammals, slowing water flows, reducing soil erosion, storing water, recharging groundwater, aiding nutrient cycling, and mitigating floods. Host Carry Kim will be interviewing John Villa, Executive Director of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy [http://hbwetlands.org/index.php], on the Orange County Coast of California. He is working with local, state and federal agencies and property owners to acquire, restore and manage the coastal wetlands in the coastal zone.

Forming some of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems, including salt marshes, seagrass beds and mangroves, roughly 40% of the world’s species depend upon wetlands for sustenance and shelter, rest stops during long migrations or as breeding grounds. It is estimated that more than 25% of all wetlands plants and animals are at risk of extinction. Some studies calculate wetland loss rates in California at a staggering 90%. The La Cienega Wetland Complex has been compromised by urbanization, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, by agriculture and flood protection, the San Pablo Bay, by gold mining and diking, and the Central Valley by turning floodplains into farmland.

Urban development and corresponding infrastructure, oil extraction, groundwater withdrawals, and pollution can all erode wetlands that might include vernal pools, riparian habitat, and coastal wetlands. At the time of Spanish colonization, it is estimated that roughly 7 million acres of vernal pools once existed in California; today less than 13% remain.

In a 2018 article, the UN Climate Change News stated that wetlands, essential regulators of global climate, are disappearing three times faster than forests. The urgency continues for us to preserve Nature’s delicate balance and the remaining wetlands of the world. Listen to John Villa, Executive Director of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy share his insights about the essential value and urgent need to protect local and global wetlands.

John Villa has an MBA with an emphasis in Technology Management. The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy is a non-profit founded in 1985 with the goal of acquiring, restoring, and protecting the coastal wetlands on the Orange County coast for future generations. The Huntington Beach Wetlands is part of a system that once spanned nearly 3,000 acres; a precious 180 acres now remain in southeast Huntington Beach, where the Santa Ana River meets the Pacific Ocean.

He is also the appointed Commissioner for the Huntington Beach Public Works Department, and Board Member for Visit HB, Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce, Huntington Beach Council on Aging, and the Orange County River Park Group.

Listen to our related show on The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center from earlier this year: https://soundcloud.com/socal350/caught-in-the-crossfire-rehabilitating-releasing-native-wildlife

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

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

Hosted by Carry Kim

Intro by Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Show Created by Mark and JP Morris

Episode 138

Photo credit: Banning Ranch Conservancy

EcoJustice Radio Executive Producer Jack Eidt shares speeches and discussions from multiple street actions on national and international climate, environmental, and social justice issues. The main action we feature is in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples fighting the Coastal GasLink Pipeline now under construction on the West Coast of Canada.

The Royal Bank of Canada is financially supporting a 416 mile gas pipeline through Indigenous Wet'suwet'en territory in British Columbia. They are also the parent company of City National Bank, 25% of whose business is connected to Hollywood celebrities and productions. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo are now taking action among many others, creating the No More Dirty Banks [https://www.nomoredirtybanks.com/] campaign in support of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in British Columbia, as well as signing a letter to City National Bank and their parent company Royal Bank of Canada demanding that the banks cut financial ties with and stop funding the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline.

We present a speech from Climate Scientist Peter Kalmus [https://peterkalmus.net/] on building the movement for a stable climate.

We also share testimony from movie writer & director Adam McKay of the recent film Don't Look Up [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11286314/] and his calls for the Hollywood film and music industry to divest from City National Bank and their parent company, the Royal Bank of Canada, who are funding the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

We hear from Indigenous and Environmental Rights activist Lydia Ponce, a Mayo-Quechua Indigenous leader and social justice activist, member of AIM (American Indian Movement), and organizer with Society of Native Nations and SoCal 350.

Other Speakers:

Jay Ponti - environmental/social justice organizer.

George Funmaker - Red Earth Defense

Keya Chaudhuri - Extinction Rebellion Youth LA and national coordinator of Extinction Rebellion Youth US.

Stephanie Mushrush - American Indian Counseling Center

Sim Bilal - Youth Climate Strike Los Angeles

Josiah Edwards - Sunrise Movement LA

We also feature excerpts of the documentary Your Voice, Our Future from the Office of the Wet'suwet'en [https://vimeo.com/user7141394] on the similar struggle in 2011 against a different pipeline, the Northern Gateway Tar Sands Pipeline by Enbridge, which was rejected by all the first Nations and eventually by the government of Canada.

Speakers include:

Klaseet - Violet Gellenbeck

Chief Madeek - Jeff Brown

Virginia deWit

Chief Na'moks - John Ridsdale - The Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have maintained their use and occupancy of their lands and hereditary governance system for thousands of years. Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs are the Title Holders and maintain authority and jurisdiction to make decisions on the unceded Wet’suwet’en lands. Chief Na’moks, along with his fellow Hereditary Chiefs, have been standing up for their Yintah - their land, and for Wet’suwet’en sovereignty, his entire life.”

Karen Nyce - Haisla

Dzi Ggot - Ron Austin

Lloyd Spencer Morris Jr

David deWit

Dolores Alfred music

Martin Naziel

Caryssa Nikal

Wila'at - Susie Alfred

Chief Samooh - Herb Naziel

Chief Gisdaywa - Dr. Alfred Joseph

Mike Ridsdale

To hear all speakers listed, listen here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67706478

More Info: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/coastal-gaslink-pipeline-divest-fossil-fuels-climate-1343046/

Host and Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Intro and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Created by: Mark and JP Morris

Episode 137

Photo credit: Jack Eidt

The Joshua tree is an icon and ecological keystone of the California deserts. However, climate disruption with hotter, drier summers and more frequent brush fires, threatens that some day soon Joshua Tree National Park will no longer have any of their namesake trees.

In fact, many other important desert plants and animals face an uncertain future. There exist so many unique symbiotic relationships, from the ocotillo blossoms and migrating hummingbirds to the spiny teddy bear cholla and the innovative woodrat.

We discuss these systems and investigate what solutions are needed. Are solar farms in the desert an appropriate renewable energy solution, or do they cause more harm than good? What about the consequences of lithium mining in Death Valley for electric vehicles? Did you know it is not a wise idea to grow your own Joshua Tree from imported seeds?

Our guest, James Cornett [https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B001K84BWE], is an ecologist and principal biologist at JWC Ecological Consultants. He is one of the West's most prolific writers with more than forty-four books published as of 2021. As former Director of Natural Sciences at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, he continues to share his love of natural history through writing, teaching, and lecturing. He is the first professional naturalist to have visited all nine of the world's great deserts and is writing a book on his travels and research in each.

This is an encore presentation of our interview from 2021.

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

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

Support the Podcast: https://socal350.org/contribute-to-socal-350-climate-action/

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Host/Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer: Blake Lampkin

Show Created by Mark and JP Morris

Music: Javier Kadry

Episode 111

Image: Stephanie Lemus

Each US resident creates an average of 4.5 to 4.9 pounds of trash per day. For many, once it’s in the garbage can, it’s out of sight, out of mind. However, what if we lived our daily lives walking around with the waste we created? Not throwing it into a trash or recycling can, but having to carry our waste with us wherever we go. Would this change our perception?

For 30 days, Environmental Activist Rob Greenfield [http://robgreenfield.org/] has been doing just that, wearing a suit that holds the waste he creates on a daily basis. He has set out to walk the streets in his suit to bring awareness to the amount of trash people create and inspire others to reduce, reuse, repair, refill, recycle, and of course, let the food scraps rot. His message is also one of rethinking – change the system that has made plastic ubiquitous and also encourages a throw away mentality.

Rob has become a social media sensation by undertaking living experiments to inspire people to live sustainably and take personal and collective responsibility in solving environmental challenges. He has documented his bike rides across the US and South America; built and lived for years in tiny houses in San Diego, CA and Orlando, FL; and subsisted for a year growing his own food.

Rob Greenfield is an activist and humanitarian dedicated to leading the way to a more sustainable and just world. He embarks on extreme projects to bring attention to important global issues and inspire positive change. In a time when many feel disempowered, he believes that our actions really do matter and that as individuals and communities we have the power to improve the world around us. He is wearing the 30 days of his trash to bring awareness to the amount of waste created on a daily basis.

Jessica Aldridge, co-host of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She has worked for 15 years as a Zero Waste professional, a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and is a recipient of the inaugural Waste Expo 40 Under 40 award.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

Support the Podcast - Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Created by: Mark and JP Morris

Episode 136

Photo credit: Jack Eidt

Many witnessed the unprecedented loss of ancient Giant Sequoia groves in the Castle Fire in Sierra Nevada, California, the only natural habitat for Sequoias on Earth. They are the world’s largest trees, spanning up to 36 feet in diameter and more than 250 feet in height. And they have been known to live for 3,400 years. Unfortunately, the wildfire damage was so severe, experts estimated, that almost a fifth of the planet’s sequoias died or suffered terminal burns during the blazes. Another old growth giant, Coastal Redwoods, were also impacted by lightning-induced fires. We must act fast to reforest our wild spaces and protect our imperiled old-growth forests.

The Biden Administration has taken action, with an executive order aimed at protecting forests, especially old-growth. Among other things, the order directs a forest inventory to identify the threats to these trees along with ways to better safeguard them. The order also sets targets for reforesting federal lands by 2030 and helping curb deforestation around the world.

Unfortunately, the order stops short at outright banning the logging of old-growth forests on federal lands. Thus, robust reforestation is all the more necessary.

Our guest, David Milarch, Co-Founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and Champion Tree Project [https://www.ancienttreearchive.org/] expounds upon why reforestation with ancient species like sequoias and redwoods is an important solution to climate change and ecosystem health, and provides inspiration for future generations.

David Milarch is a fourth generation Nurseryman with over 40 years of experience in growing and supplying landscape trees for resale for the national market in Northern Michigan. David and his sons co-founded Archangel Ancient Tree Archive in 2007. The project is dedicated to leading society towards sustainability by propagating ancient, old growth trees, archiving and preserving their genetics, and reforesting their living legacies worldwide. aiming to restore our arboricultural heritage.

This is an encore presentation of our interview from 2021.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

Support the Podcast - Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Interview by Carry Kim

Intro by Jessica Aldridge

Engineer: Blake Lampkin

Show Created by Mark and JP Morris

Music: Javier Kadry

Episode 110

Image: Archangel Ancient Tree Archive

Multiple banks have pledged to clean up their fossil fuel funding with net-zero carbon commitments, but they continue business-as-usual, pushing for profit by championing destructive projects responsible for driving climate chaos.

The 2022 annual report, Banking on Climate Chaos [http://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org], revealed that fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks has reached nearly $4.6 trillion in the six years since the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement, with $742 billion in 2021 alone.

On this show, we delve into the Banking on Climate Chaos report with Ruth Breech from Rainforest Action Network [https://www.ran.org/], one of the organizations that authored the report. She discusses how these findings underscore the need for banks to immediately implement policies that end their financing for fossil fuel expansion. Moreover we highlight some of these projects causing climate chaos and the worldwide movement of communities coming together to demand that the financial sector get out of the oil and gas business altogether.

More Links:

-Climate Town Video I Your Money is Cheating on You with the Fossil Fuel Industry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ7W6HFHPYs

-Green America's Better Banking https://www.greenamerica.org/better-banking

-Take Action with Stop the Money Pipeline https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/action/

-Book: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage & Solutions for the Climate Crisis https://www.allwecansave.earth/anthology

*Ruth Breech is Senior Campaigner for Rainforest Action Network’s Climate and Energy team. She is responsible for organizing corporate accountability campaigns on financial institutions, supporting front line communities impacted by fossil fuels and climate change, partnering with Indigenous leaders and working with grassroots networks across the country to Defund Climate Chaos.

Ruth brings 20 years of on-the-ground-work with environmental justice frontline communities. She is the recipient of the 2009 Healthy School Heroes Award for her leadership in relocating an elementary school in Ohio away from a plastics plant and its cancer causing emissions. She serves on the board of Crude Accountability International & Earth Guardians.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

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

Hosted by Jessica Aldridge

Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Show Created by Mark and JP Morris

Episode 135

Photo credit: Ruth Breech

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

This is an encore presentation of an interview we did in 2021 with Timothy Paule Jackson and Nicole Lindsey and Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors of Detroit Hives [https://detroithives.org/].

Urban bee farms of Detroit are not only rebuilding honey bee populations, they are also rebuilding the city and uplifting the community. Since 1950, 61% of Detroit’s population has moved away in hopes for better opportunities. Whole neighborhoods in the inner-city have been abandoned, leaving overgrown lots and social issues for those who chose to stay.

Urban beekeeping happens to be one of the solutions forging a new path in Detroit. Nicole Lindsey and Timothy Paule Jackson of Detroit Hives are generating a lot of buzz by activating vacant lots in the inner city and turning those spaces into urban bee farms. And doing so in a way that uplifts long-term residents and doesn’t lend to furthering gentrification.

Through their conservation and awareness efforts, educational programs, and health based initiatives, Detroit Hives is creating a safe home for bees and the community to live, feed, and thrive.

Timothy Paule Jackson and Nicole Lindsey are both lifetime Detroiters. Their non-profit organization Detroit Hives works to create sustainable communities and bee populations by transforming vacant lots into pollinator friendly spaces. Nicole is devoted to altering negative stigmas about bees by informing people of their crucial roles and benefits to the environment. She also teaches children about apiology. Timothy, comes from a background of photography and advertising. He is focused on making Detroit a bee city by repurposing vacant land into pollinator habitats. The overarching goal is to improve the quality of life not only for native plants and insects, but for the surrounding community.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/

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

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

Executive Producer: Jack Eidt

Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge

Engineer: Blake Lampkin

Show Created by Mark and JP Morris

Music: Javier Kadry

Episode 102

Image: Detroit Hives