Ecotopia

We had two guests on this podcast, both strong advocates for universal, single-payer health care. Bruce  McLean has lived and worked in Butte County since 1990 and has been on  the Board of the Butte County Health Care Coalition (now North State  Medicare 4-All) since 2016. Paul O’Rourke-Babb, is a nurse practitioner  and co-chair of NorCal Physicians for a National Health Program. They  opened the interview with “Health Care 101,” describing the many  problems with our current health care system and explaining why they  think a single-payer or Medicare-for-All system is desperately needed.  They discussed a recent health care resolution passed by the Chico City  Council and then spoke about the state of the health-care-for-all bills  in Congress as well as and options for improved health care insurance in  California. Learn more at North Care Medicare for All or  Physicians for a National Health Program. Listen to or download the program: Click Here.

In this episodl we spoke with Cheri Chastain, who Chair of the Chico Climate Action Commission and with  Molly Marcussen associate planner for the City of Chico. They told us about recent proposals/recommendations of the Commission, which include the Chico Bicycle Master Plan, improving ZEV (zero emission vehicle) infrastructure to allow for a 25% shift from combustion vehicles to ZEVs by 2030, working with waste haulers and other stakeholders to meet the goals of SB 1383 and divert 75% of organic waste from the landfill through an expansion of composting services and edible food waste diversion and expanding the tree canopy by 700 trees by 2022 and 4,500 trees by 2030 to sequester carbon, decrease temperatures, save energy, and improve air quality within Chico. Read more about their work  at https://chico.ca.us/climate-action-commission

In this program, we spoke with Cheri Chastain. She is Chair of the Chico Climate Action Commission, which is overseeing the update of Climate Action Plan for the City of Chico. She is also Campus Sustainability Manager for Chico State. We discussed the role of the Climate Action Commission, its work updating the Climate Action Plan, how the community has been involved, and the challenges facing both the Commission and the City generally.

This week we inteviewed Wolfy Rougle, who serves the Butte County Resource Conservation District as a Forest Health Watershed Coordinator under a grant from the Department of Conservation.  Her projects include developing the Butte Forest Plan, helping local landowners put "good fire" on the ground through a Prescribed Burn Association, tree planting, and writing grants to develop the next wave of watershed health projects in the county.

Our ecosystem in this program is the complex one of Chico, and our guest on the phone was She is a Chico native and went to Butte College, and then Chico State to get her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, working at local businesses along the way, as well as as a Behavior Health Education Specialist. She has been the business manager for Chico Chai and is currently working as a case manager helping people transition out of homelessness.  She spoke about housing, infill development vs urban sprawl, public safety, homelessness and climate change. Her emphasis is on making connections among all problems--for example, homelessness as related to social services, public safety as related to urban sprawl, public transportation and the environment.

We spoke with Richie Bamlet. the Urban Forest Manager for the City of Chico. In addition to being responsible for the care and management of trees in Chico, he is responsible for thinking about the future of trees as we face climate change. We were particularly interested in learning about trees able to grow comfortably now in our area will will change.  He is experimenting with trees that grow 700 miles south of us to discover possible new species.

Our guest was Matt Hearn, educator and community organizer from East Vancouver, British Columbia. He describe the "Solid State Project," that helps immigrant young people create cohorts to, in turn, create viable and humanistic businesses. We also discussed the broader concept of "deschooing," which, in opposition to compulsory education, gives students control over what they learn.

Our guest was Ali Meders-Knight, a member of the Mechoopda Tribe and an artist, activist, and educator.  She has a vision to educate people in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). She discussed how TEK differes from western scientific knowledge in terms of landscape management and described her programs to certify people in TEK and to see this knowledge put into large-scale practice.  Learn more at TEKChico.org.

Our guest on this program was the wonderfully outspoken Harvey  Wasserman, advocate for solar power, anti-nuclear-power advocate and  crusader on many other issues.  In this interview, he focused on the  possible theft of the 2020 presidential election, with a trifecta of  voter registration, voter suppression, and inaccurate vote counts. He  argues that Trump and his workerbees are very much attempting to the  steal the election and have a very good chance of doing so.

Our guest on this program was Patrick Newman, longtime Chico activist, a frequent contributor to the letters page of our local papers, and a man dedicated to solving homeless issues in Chico in humane, progressive ways. As part of our Radical Change series we invited Patrick to speak out on the issues that he sees most important for our time.  He opened with a blockbuster question, “Has civilization ever had a functional moral compass?” He offered a detailed, philosophical explanation of putting an end to unnecessary suffering as the key to a “deep moral/reform and awaking.”