Mother Earth Podcast

In our conversation with Suzanne, she explains her groundbreaking findings and we hear about the controversy her findings have stirred up. We also discuss the Mother Tree Project, which is researching forest renewal practices that protect biodiversity, carbon storage and forest regeneration as the climate changes. Suzanne lets us in on her personal journey from a simple, rural upbringing in the British Columbia forests to world famous scientist and author. And she opens up about the challenges of being a woman taking on scientific orthodoxy in a male dominated field.

Suzanne is professor of Forest Ecology in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She has published over 170 articles relating to forestry and the environment. She earned her PhD in Forest Sciences from Oregon State University in 1997, where her thesis on forest ecology was featured on the cover of Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals. Not a bad way to start a career in science.

Join us around our virtual campfire for a conversation that may help lead us to the key to surviving the climate crisis: cooperation with nature.

This week’s episode of the Mother Earth Podcast features our first visual artist on the podcast, Madeleine Jubilee Saito. Madeleine addresses the climate crisis through poetry comics, an artform that combines drawings with words. Madeleine’s poetry comics on the climate crisis take us out of the language of science and into the language of feelings and emotion. In our conversation, we discuss the role of feelings, emotion and human connectivity in solving this crisis. 

Madeleine’s art conveys a critical message: we are all inextricably linked; we cannot see ourselves separate from each other or from nature and we must cultivate solidarity and come together as one in order to solve the climate crisis. Madeleine says that “the idea that we are somehow separate from nature is an illusion. I draw to celebrate the beauty of the natural world, trees, forests, and hills and to convey the reality that nature is not something that is other to us.”

Madeleine’s work is featured in the anthology All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. She is also the creative director and operations lead at The All We Can Save Project. Madeleine is involved with the Sunrise Movement hub in Boston and has also worked with the national team as a designer. 

In our conversation, Madeleine and I discuss the role of art in social movements and the how art can help us express our feelings and emotions in this time of a climate crisis. Madeleine leaves us off with a compelling reading of her own work, 30 days of comics / 2019: on climate crisis.  Join us for this first of its kind interview on The Mother Earth Podcast. Learn more about Madeleine and our other guests on our website.

For People and Planet, thank you for listening. 

-Matt

In the face of such grave climate threats, why has environmental policy failed us? Why has an issue that once enjoyed broad bipartisan support become a source of deep division? The 60s and 70s saw swift and effective legislation over pollution and clean air. So what has changed?

In today’s episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, guest Dan Esty discusses the necessity to modernize environmental policy. He argues the 20th century policy has not failed us, but rather the policy and law of the 20th century served 20th century purposes. Now, “it’s time to refresh the game plan.”

Dan Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University with appointments at Yale’s Environment and Law Schools and the Yale School of Management. He is the director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and co-director of the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance. Esty is celebrated for a number of works including "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage,"Red Lights to Green Lights: From 20th Century Environmental Regulation to 21st Century Sustainability” and most recently "A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future."

Listen to this week's stimulating conversation tackling big ideas on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or any other podcast app with the links on our website.

In this episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, we sit down with Deeohn for a conversation about the indispensable role of community-based environmental change. Deeohn and her team work in cities in China, India, Bangladesh and the United States, where they bring together key stakeholders--factory owners, workers, government leaders, NGOs, and folks at the grassroots level--to tackle the critical issues of making the transition to renewable energy, enhancing resiliency, reducing pollution, and making sure that equity is at the center of the process. Deeohn and her colleagues share international best practices and experience, provide technical expertise and training, and build the capacity of local organizations in order to spark creative environmental solutions and lasting change. This is a true bottom-up, inclusive approach; it entails listening to people in the community and ensuring that solutions emerge from within each community rather than being imposed from the outside.

One year ago, catastrophic wildfires devastated communities in southern Oregon, including the rural towns of Talent and Phoenix. The fires destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, raced ahead of people trying to escape in their cars, and killed eleven people. Much of the devastation occurred in the district of state Senator Jeff Golden, Chair of the Oregon Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire Recovery. Senator Golden is a rare political animal: a progressive Democrat and environmental champion in a rural, conservative district and a thoughtful, respectful politician who refuses to vilify his opponents.

In this episode of the Mother Earth Podcast we sit down with Senator Golden for an in-depth discussion on the politics of the climate crisis, the wildfires that literally hit close to home for him, and the important climate legislation in Oregon that serves as a national model for progress.  We get an inside look at the immense challenges he and his colleagues have faced in enacting environmental legislation, including repeated Republican walkouts in 2019 and 2020 that deprived the legislature of a quorum and were used to block climate legislation, even as the state literally burned. Senator Golden joined us for two interviews that make up this episode: first in October 2020 just after the disastrous wildfires tore through his district, and again in August, 2021. The timing of these conversations turned out to be perfect. In the first conversation we hear about why a state cap and trade bill failed while in our recent conversation we learn of the success of a very different kind of climate bill in 2021 that is one of the most far-reaching climate bills on the electricity sector in the nation. We hear not only about the brutal devastation of the 2020 wildfires but also about the successful legislation Senator Golden sponsored in 2021 to reduce the dangers of future fires. We discuss Oregon’s status as one of the few states with no campaign finance limits in the first interview and, in the second, learn about a ballot measure in which the voters took control and authorized campaign finance reform.

Senator Golden’s experience in Oregon offers vitally important lessons for the national efforts to deal with the climate crisis.  Despite the difficulty of working in politics in a time where extremism and misleading news are rampant, Senator Golden remains diligent in his commitment to protect the land and the people of his beloved state of Oregon  And he offers us nuggets of wisdom from his lifetime as a journalist, logger, carpenter, activist and, now, political leader. Join us this week to hear an authentic, progressive voice of the rural American West.

In today’s episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, we sit down for an inspiring and hopeful conversation with world-leading sustainable architect and planner Amanda Sturgeon. Amanda is the founder of the biophilic design movement, which designs buildings and communities in alignment with nature. Her buildings have windows that open for fresh air and allow you to see the changing sunlight throughout the day. Biophilic design makes us happier, healthier, and more productive. Students learn better in biophilic buildings, hospital patients heal faster. The fresh air in biophilic buildings is a really good thing during the pandemic. Her buildings use net zero energy or are even energy net negative..

Connect with Amanda Sturgeon: LinkedIn丨Twitter

When Hurricanes Irene and Sandy wiped out Bren Smith’s traditional oyster farm in the Long Island Sound two years in a row, he knew it was a wake-up call on the climate crisis. Starting yet again from scratch in a life of restarts, Bren began experimenting with ocean farming.

Fast forward ten years: Bren is now recognized as the founder, leader and trailblazer of the regenerative ocean farming movement - a proven way of growing food that helps solve the climate crisis by sequestering carbon. Bren knows it works because he does it himself: he grows abundant quantities of shellfish and edible ocean plants at his Thimble Island Ocean Farm along the Connecticut coastline. Unlike land-based agriculture, Bren’s ocean farming system requires no inputs of food, freshwater or fertilizer. And rather than contributing to the fertilizer pollution problem that causes ocean dead zones, regenerative ocean farming actually removes fertilizer pollutants that are running off of land-based farms into the ocean. Fish also thrive near the healthy ecosystem created by his ocean farm.

Bren is passionate about growing food in a way that heals the planet but maybe even more passionate about creating good-paying jobs that give workers ownership and independence. So he founded and leads GreenWave, a non-profit that helps people launch and operate regenerative ocean farms all over the country. And he’s become a leading spokesperson for the Blue New Deal -- a set of policies to put people to work in good jobs growing food in the ocean in ways that enhance ocean health and mitigate the climate crisis.

In our conversation with Bren, he explains how regenerative ocean farming works, how it can feed the planet, create jobs, and help us heal a wounded planet. He discusses his must-read book, Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures Farming the Ocean to Fight Climate Change. And he shares his incredible life journey from Newfoundland fishing community to being jobless in the U.S. to ocean farming visionary.

Join us on the Mother Earth Podcast to learn more about this critical movement that just might save the planet.

“As human beings, it’s not just survival of the fittest. We’re also social animals and we thrive when we share.”

-Mike Calabrese

It can be hard to remain hopeful when we're relentlessly inundated with bad news about the ever-present threat of the climate crisis. But music has the power to lift us up.  And in a world where we're constantly being divided, music also has the power to bring us together.

In today’s episode of the Mother Earth Podcast, we sit down with drummer Mike Calabrese for a conversation about how the hit band Lake Street Dive uses music to speak out on the climate crisis. Mike also opens up about his history of depression over the climate crisis and how he found a happier place through mediation, self-care and, ultimately, by taking action on the climate crisis. Mike now lives a low carbon life, has joined together with his bandmates to reduce Lake Street Dive's carbon footprint, makes music about the climate crisis, and uses his modest fame to speak out. Mike’s story is one of hope and renewal. 

Mike and the band have grown into notable musical activists for climate justice. The band partners with Cool Effect, a carbon offset program that balances emissions from the band’s tours. Last year Lake Street Dive premiered the official music video for their song, Making Do, which addresses climate impacts happening around the world. In this episode you'll get to hear a little of Making Do and other AMAZING music from Lake Street Dive.

Mike's appearance on the show is no accident: he's on a mission to speak out on the climate crisis. I'm deeply honored that he came on Mother Earth Podcast to do so.

For People and Planet, thank you for listening.

Matt

This week on the Mother Earth Podcast we sit down with Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha to get the back story on the Flint water crisis, her own remarkable life journey and how we can all stay safe from old lead pipes and not-so-old fixtures with lead that are still found in many cities and homes across the country. Dr. Mona is the author of a critically-acclaimed book on the Flint water crisis, a recipient of Time Magazine’s 100 Most influential People award, and has become a national activist and spokesperson on the toxic combination of lead pipes, environmental racism and the undermining of local democracy.

Find out more about Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha's work: https://monahannaattisha.com/

Could Boston become the greenest city in the world? Leading Boston mayoral candidate and city council member Michelle Wu believes it can. Michelle may very well be America’s most important municipal climate leader. She joins us for an illuminating conversation in this special episode of the Mother Earth Podcast. In our conversation Michelle discusses her far-reaching vision of Boston as the world’s leading green city and her detailed Boston Green New Deal plan that takes an integrated approach to the climate crisis with policies to address climate justice, housing, food, transportation, support of Boston’s small businesses, and more. Michelle wants to make Boston’s subways and buses free and explains why and how. She discusses her goal and plans for Boston to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, a decade earlier than President Biden’s goal. And she explains the important environmental policies she has successfully spearheaded as a Boston city councilor.

Michelle also discusses her experience growing up as a first generation American citizen, and how her family, culture, and her own life experiences shaped her into the forward-thinking leader she is today. Her compelling life story is utterly improbable and we hear firsthand in this episode how she grew up in an immigrant family with no interest in politics, became an apolitical young adult, and yet somehow became a rapidly rising, progressive, outside-the-box political leader in the rough and tumble world of Boston politics.

How important is this conversation?  Consider cities consume over two thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. And that cities are now on the cutting edge of our most important solutions to the climate crisis. Leaders like Michelle Wu are critical in devising and implementing these solutions. Join us for this compelling conversation and for some inspiration on how a new, young generation of leaders is stepping up to meet the ultimate challenge of our time.

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For People and Planet, thank you for listening.