On this episode we get into the Congressional draft version of the Green New Deal.

We also deal with such issues as ...

Is it possible to have too much money?

Who is at war with the human species?

What can we do?

On this edition of Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, takes a break from writing his legislators and turns his gaze across the river for a chat with Tim Maloney, Senior Policy Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council. Tim leads the Hoosier Environmental Council’s programs on forestry, land use, and public transit. In addition, Tim is the Council’s principal presence at the Indiana legislature. He has served as the Council`s Executive Director and previously as its Natural Heritage Director. He has also been chair of the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club as well as a field organizer for the Sierra Club and National Clean Air Coalition. Among his extensive volunteer activities, Tim has served on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. He was a Founding Member of the HEC Board of Directors. He has a bachelors degree in Forensic Studies/Psychology from Indiana University.

More information about the Hoosier Environmental Council is at http://hecweb.org

As always, our interview is followed by an up-to-date community calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action to make sustainability happen NOW!

Sustainability Now! airs on FORward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at http://forwardradio.org

The music in this podcast is used by permission from the fantastic Louisville band, Appalatin. Explore their inspiring music at https://www.appalatin.com

Taxes are bad. At least that's what we've been taught. We've also been taught that money is the only thing that motivates people to do good things for society.

We need to question all these assumptions, and more.

In this part of the Green New Deal, we look at taxes. How will taxes be structured differently under the Green New Deal?

In order to implement a Green New Deal, we need a fundamentally different mindset.

We need to believe that most war is unnecessary, wasteful and tragic.

And we need to believe, contrary to what we've been taught, that quite often, government is good. We need to believe that government is capable of making our lives better.

But we have to get away from this notion that "the government governs best that governs least." Quite often more government means more freedom.

What role does microcredit have in helping people avoid predatory payday lenders so they can stay in their homes, pay their property tax, and get working capital to start a business or keep its doors open? Amy Shir, Executive Director of the Louisville Housing Opportunity and Micro-Enterprise Community Development Loan Fund discusses that organization's role in building wealth in historically underserved communities, where bank branches are scarce and credit is hard to come by.

Embedded music is "Sage" and "Cloud Nine," by Prismic

Cover photo is the LHOME logo, by Miriam Shir

Continuing to talk about the Green New Deal, but with a special emphasis on war.

Here's the thing... We must renounce war if we are to survive. The US spends insane amounts of taxpayer dollars only to go all around the world, beating up on every little defenseless country, for all the wrong reasons. This is cruel, inhumane and unsustainable, and it has nothing to do with the defense of the American people.

We must renounce war, so we can implement the Green New Deal.

Continuing to talk about the Green New Deal...

We address these issues...

How much will we save on health care costs under the Green New Deal?

How much will we save by lowering costs due to extreme weather events?

How much do we want to save money otherwise spent on wars for oil?

Continuing with the Green New Deal.

We examine these issues...

What are the naysayers saying about the Green New Deal?

What technology will be required?

Why should we be excited about this transition?

Jim Johnson and Jamie McMillin interview Phillip Cherry and Thaddeus Pinkney, two-thirds of the group "Hughes and Blues". They perform Langston Hughes and Paul Dunbar poetry, and they discuss the Harlem Renaissance and other African American intellectuals.

On this week’s edition of the Access Hour, we bring you highlights of the recent Annual Meeting and Legislative Summit of the Kentucky Conservation Committee. The Summit was held January 12th at the University of Louisville and featured keynote speaker Dale Ross, the Republican Mayor of Georgetown, Texas. Ross is mayor of the first city in the U.S. to convert to 100% renewable energy to power its grid. He is a certified public accountant, who moved to Georgetown in 2004 and became mayor in 2014. He has expanded the city’s park system, begun composting fruits in local schools, and installed nine charging stations for electric vehicles. This year, Georgetown won a Bloomberg Mayor’s Challenge grant to create a virtual solar plant by renting out space for panels on the city’s businesses and homes. We’ll listen-in to his keynote talk here on the Access Hour.

The Summit also featured a 2019 Legislative Session Overview, and after Mayor Ross, we’ll hear from Kentucky Resources Council Executive Director Tom FitzGerald, offering anticipated highlights for the 2019 State General Assembly.

More at: http://kyconservation.org/annual-meeting-2019/

https://www.kyrc.org

The music in this podcast is used by permission from the fantastic Louisville band, Appalatin. Explore their inspiring music at https://www.appalatin.com

The Access Hour airs on FORward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Wednesday at 2pm and repeats Thursdays at 11am and Fridays at 1pm. Find us at http://forwardradio.org

If you’ve got something you’d like to share on community radio through the Access Hour, whether it’s a recording you made or a show you’d like to do on a particular topic, community, artistic creation, or program that is under-represented in Louisville’s media landscape, just go to forwarradio.org, click on Participate and pitch us your idea. The Access Hour is your opportunity to take over the air waves to share your passion.