Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org

Host Ronnie Lipschutz speaks with Andrea Mackenzie, General Manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. For more than 25 years, Ms. Mackenzie has worked in the fields of land use planning, conservation planning, public policy, and finance for open space and agricultural land preservation agencies at county, regional, state, and national levels. The Open Space Authority works to protect and steward the region’s natural capital, open spaces, water resources, natural areas, and working lands to support healthy lands, resilient communities, and strong economies.

Sustainability Now! is underwritten by the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation.

Sustainability Now! October 6, 2019, History of UC Santa Cruz, with Professor Emeritus Jim Clifford, History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz, talking about the University and its history, and his book, In the Ecotone.

Sustainability Now! August 23, 2020. Host Ronnie Lipschutz and his guest Kim Stanley Robinson engage in a wide-ranging  conversation about sustainability, politics, 2020 and after, and how we  might prepare for the future. Robinson is a science fiction author,  California futurist and environmental optimist of the will. His recent  work, such as New York 2140 (2017) has addressed environmental and climate issues. His forthcoming book, The Ministry for the Future,  which imagines a new, global organization that advocates for the  world’s future generations and protects all living creatures, present  and future.

(Photo by Stephan Martiniere, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/arts/kim-stanley-robinson-coming-to-phoenix-art-museum-sept-20-9702004)

Sustainability Now!, April 5, 2020, Urchins in the Storm, with KSQD engineer Emily Donham, a 5th-year PhD candidate in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at UCSC.  Emily’s research focuses on how sea urchins, which graze on kelp forests, may be vulnerable to ocean acidication and global warming.  Emily is the producer of “Santa Cruz Naturalist,” which airs on Tuesdays at 7:54 AM, Wednesdays at 3:55 PM and Saturdays at 11:54 AM. at Her favorite crustacean is the horseshoe crab.

Sustainability Now! #25, August 9, 2020. Climate Change, Public Health & Birth Impacts, with Dr. Rupa Basu, Chief of the Air and Climate Epidemiology Section at California Office on Environmental Health Hazards in the California Environmental Protection Agency and a lecturer in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.  She is coauthor of a recently-published review article in JAMA Open Network about the effects of air pollution and climate change on birth outcomes and conducts research on the health effects of climate change. Dr. Basu received her PhD in Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology from The Johns Hopkins University and a Masters of Public Health from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

Planetary heating and climate change are in the news more and more, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has just issued a very pessimistic report on humanity’s and the world’s prospects. In a revisit of a show from 2020, Host Ronnie Lipschutz and Guest Dr. Rupa Basu talk about about climate change and public health. Dr. Basu is Chief of the Air and Climate Epidemiology Section at California Office on Environmental Health Hazards and a lecturer in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.  She is coauthor of a review article in JAMA Open Network about the effects of air pollution and climate change on birth outcomes.  She is featured in an article on the health effects of high temperatures in The San Francisco Chronicle, on Sunday, August 29, 2021.

California is dry, dry, dry and that probably means we are in for a  wild wildfire season. Since the beginning of January, there have been  more than 10,000 wildfires across the state.  So, what are we to do?  Hear from Dr. Sasha Berleman, Wildland Fire Scientist. She is director  of Fire Forward at Audubon Canyon Ranch in Stinson Beach. She is a CA State Certified Burn Boss, a Prescribed  Fire Training Exchange (TREX) coach and leader, and a wildland  firefighter with Fire Effects Monitoring, Squad Boss, Crew Boss, Firing  Boss, and Incident Commander qualifications.  Find out what we can do to  reduce the threat and risks of wildfires.

Watch these videos online:

Why These Californians Are Starting Fires On Purpose 

Community-Based Burning: Caring for our Land Together

Andrew Selsky, “Amid clamor to increase prescribed burns, obstacles await,” AP News, June 22, 2021.

Sustainability Now! December 1, 2019, What Do You Do About a Problem Like PG&E?, with Professor Dustin Mulvaney, Environmental Studies at San Jose State University. His research focuses on the social and environmental dimensions of food and energy systems, innovation, emerging technologies and environmental change.  He is author of Solar Power: Innovation, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice and the forthcoming Sustainable Energy Strategies: Socio-Ecological Dimensions of Decarbonization.

January 2022 is Solar Energy Month on Sustainability Now!  On Sunday, January 23rd, we will be welcoming Dr. Ahmad Faruqui, an energy economist who has been deeply involved in solar electricity issues in California.  We will be talking about the pending decision by the California Public Utilities Commission to impose “grid participation charges” on households with rooftop solar.

To get listeners prepared for Dr. Faruqui, we have assembled a show that draws on past episodes focused on solar.   We’ll be hearing from: Dr. Dustin Mulvaney, a SJSU professor and solar energy expert, to talk about PG&E; Fred Keeley, who has been deeply involved in electricity law and regulation for more than 20 years, to talk about the future of electric utilities in California; Allie Detrio, Chief strategist at Reimagine Power in San Francisco, who will run us through how solar law and regulation functions in California, and Bob Stayton, who will talk about his Solar Dividends proposal, to give every Californian a month basic income from the sale of solar electricity.

Join Sustainability Now! hosts Brooke Wright and Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Ecology Action's Matt Miller about bicycles, Bike Month, e-bike rebates and local transportation policies and practices, more generally.  Matt is a Senior Program Specialist at Ecology Action in Santa Cruz, where he focuses on urban transportation working collaboratively with local government, businesses, and NGOs, to help build physical and social infrastructure to move away from car centric planning and behavior.  If you don't already bike but are thinking about getting out of your car, be sure to tune in!

Sustainability Now! is underwritten by the Sustainable Systems Research Foundation. and Environmental Innovations.