The Green Flame

For this episode of The Green Flame, we're joined by Diane Wilson. Diane is a fourth-generation shrimper, boat captain, mother of five, author, and an environmental, peace, and social justice advocate. During the last 30 years, she has launched legislative campaigns, demonstrations, hunger strikes, sunk boats, and even climbed chemical towers in her fight to protect her Gulf Coast bay.

She is a co-founder of Code Pink, the women's anti-war group based in Washington, DC and co-founder of the Texas Jail Project, which advocates for inmates' rights in Texas county jails.

On April 7th, Diane launched a hunger strike to #StopTheDredging of Matagorda Ship Channel, part of a mercury-contaminated Superfund site on the TX Gulf Coast. Oil company Max Midstream wants to dredge the bay to make room for giant oil tankers to export crude fracked from the Permian Basin in West Texas & New Mexico. If the project goes forward, it would unearth potentially devastating mercury contamination into the bay, which local fisherfolk have been working to revitalize.

More info: https://www.facebook.com/unreasonablewoman/

News story on the hunger strike: https://truthout.org/articles/72-year-old-fisher-hunger-strikes-to-press-biden-to-revive-crude-oil-export-ban/

Diane's website: https://www.dianewilson.org/

Music: feellikedying by Loxbeats https://spoti.fi/34tPBBO​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0.

On this episode of the Green Flame, an anonymous voice from Nepal speaks to us eloquently on behalf of her land and of the environmental struggles in her country. We thank her. We also thank Jore for permission to share his music. You can find his work at https://jore.cc/.

Ja is a community organizer, film maker and podcast host living with the land in the Philippine Archipelago. You can find out more about his work by going to piratestudio.net and samalahatadvocacy.org. Visit Deep Green Resistance Asia Pacific on FB for upcoming events. The music Ja plays in this episode is performed on the 2 stringed ethnic instrument, the Hegalong.

Come hiking with Rebecca Wildbear in the Sonoran Desert. Rebecca teaches people how to listen deeply to the Mysteries that live within the Earth community, Dreamtime, and their own wild Nature, and to encounter and live their Souls, or truest selves. She is a guide with Animas Valley Institute and the creator of Wild Yoga. To explore all that she offers, go to www.rebeccawildbear.com

This edition of the Green Flame offers you an incredibly rich conversation centered on discussion of the 2002 documentary film Drowned Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICnSsK-ZHTg. We thank Franny Armstrong at Spanner Films for allowing us to use audio clips from the documentary in this episode.

This episode is a set of deeply personal ruminations on permaculture experiences, practices and ethics between two radical environmental activists. .Music is provided by Solebound with their song Seeds and cover of Pacha Mama, an old rainbow gathering song. Solebound can be found on facebook https://www.facebook.com/soleboundmusic/ and bandcamp https://solebound.bandcamp.com/releases

This episode features a launch party for the new book Bright Green Lies: How The Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It, by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert. The book tackles the greenwashing surrounding so much so-called "green" technology and other false solutions. The authors read excerpts from the book, discuss it's themes, and answer audience questions.

You can order the book into your local bookstore (or for delivery) here: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781948626392

Music: Trick or Treat (instrumental) by RYYZN https://soundcloud.com/ryyzn​ Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0.

In this episode, Max gives a brief update on the Protect Thacker Pass action, and Elisabeth Robson interviews Jamie Kneen, Communications & Outreach Coordinator for Mining Watch Canada, an organization that works to protect the public and the environment from destructive mining practices. https://miningwatch.ca/

Elisabeth also reads two excerpts about mining from Bright Green Lies, a new book by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert. https://www.brightgreenlies.com/

Sarah Gardam reads her poem Upon the Proposed Mining of "Thacker Pass, Nevada", a poem by Sarah Gardam, a visitor to the land of the Paiute, the Shoshone, and the sagebrush creatures.

Pretty Mary Sunshine provides the accompaniment with their song Liar Lie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeooaDWXSKM

In this episode Max Wilbert interviews Danish historian of Religion Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen who runs the youtube channel Nordic Animism. Danish Viking folk band Gjaldulei provides the perfect accompaniment with their original composition Lyset Vågner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Bd50fqIRk

In this episode, Max Wilbert and Will Falk sit around the campfire at Thacker Pass to share the latest updates from the #ProtectThackerPass campaign, which aims to stop Lithium Americas Corporation from strip mining this place and more broadly to shift power in the environmental movement away from extraction and towards degrowth.

Our music for this week is "The Way It Is" by The Filthy Politicians.