climate change
Democracy Now! Thursday, September 8, 2011
Texas Gov. Rick Perry was back on the campaign trail at last night’s Republican presidential debate, where he questioned the science behind human-caused global warming. On Wednesday, Perry announced he was returning home to focus on a historic wildfire season in which some 3.6 million acres have burned—an area larger than the size of Connecticut. We speak with Forrest Wilder, reporter with The Texas Observer. "That September 11, that lethal Tuesday morning, I awoke with dread to the sound of planes flying above my house. When, an hour later, I saw smoke billowing from the center of the city, I knew that life had changed for me, for my country, forever." Those are the words of our guest, Chilean-American author Ariel Dorfman, writing not about the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 10 years ago this week, but another September 11th. On September 11, 1973 a U.S.-backed coup in Chile led by General Augusto Pinochet ousted Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.
Email this pageBig Picture 8/26/11: Bill McKibben & Climate Change
Renowned environmentalist and author, Bill McKibben joins Thom for "Conversations with Great Minds". They discuss the latest developments in climate change, including the recent east coast earthquake and the threat level of Hurricane Irene. Later in the show, Thom debates the week's biggest topics in the weekly rumble.
Newswire: Shell Oil Dumped Into North Sea 8/16/11
In environmental news, an oil spill in the North Sea is being called the worst spill in British waters in the past decade. A new study blames humans for the record levels of melting sea ice in the Arctic. The study found that half of the melted sea ice can be blamed on global warming that's caused by humans.
FSTV Keynote: Al Gore
Former Vice President, Al Gore, speaking at the Miami Book Fair, discusses his latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis.
Newswire: Urban Farms Sprouting Everywhere 7/25/11
Urban farms are popping up around the globe. A sculpture on the University of Wyoming campus links the state?s coal industry to climate change and the pine beetle explosion. Some California Residents can now choose to get their energy from 100 percent renewable resources.
GRITtv: May 9, 2011
"If people think about how they might want to create something that isn't just me me me, that could be revolutionary," says musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson. Anderson has crossed genres, created new instruments, performed in "audio drag" and even created some comics, but she's best known for her experimental violin playing. Laurie joins Laura in studio for a feature-length interview on art, electronics, making music for fish, and why Homeland Security still has one of her instruments. "I'd like my title to be 'explorer,' but on my passport it just says 'artist,'" she says. You may be familiar with Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff Project, the illustrated, animated explainers that break down progressive issues in easy, fun ways. In the same style, she explains the story of Cap & Trade--how it works, who would benefit, who would suffer, and why real solutions to climate change are necessary. And finally, Vermont is nearly all the way to single-payer health care, but Laura warns not to forget the fight the insurance companies will put up. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: The Story of Cap & Trade
You may be familiar with Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff Project, the illustrated, animated explainers that break down progressive issues in easy, fun ways. In the same style, she explains the story of Cap & Trade--how it works, who would benefit, who would suffer, and why real solutions to climate change are necessary.
GRITtv: Vandana Shiva: Understanding the Corporate Takeover
"The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago," says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. "The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy." Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world.
GRITtv: April 29, 2011
"The American people should see that corporations have abandoned them long ago," says scientist, environmentalist, and food justice activist Dr. Vandana Shiva, named one of the seven most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. "The people will have to rebuild democracy as a living democracy." Dr. Shiva has been fighting corporate takeover in every area in her native India, combating a nuclear plant one week and patented, genetically modified seeds another. She joins Laura in studio to advise American activists how they can fight the merging of corporations and government here at home and around the world. A 9-year-old child faces down Sheriff Joe Arpaio in this week's featured documentary, Two Americans. Katherine Figueroa is a US citizen born to immigrant parents, and when Arpaio targets them for deportation, she becomes the center of a fight against the sheriff's plans. In Arizona, the immigration battle has its ground zero, and this documentary follows the people at the center of it all. Singer-songwriter Phoebe Snow died this week at the age of 58. Her powerful voice will certainly be missed, and we bring you this performance of her classic hit "Poetry Man" to remember her too-often forgotten work. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Mark Hertsgaard: Surviving Generation Hot
Global climate change isn't an if anymore, it's a when, according to journalist Mark Hertsgaard. The planet is going to get warmer, and Hertsgaard says that only the "climate crooks and climate cranks" are still in the denial business. But legislation is stalled in Congress because those very same crooks control the purse strings of the politicians who make the decisions. How do the members of Generation Hot, like Hertsgaard's daughter Chiara, make it? Mark joined Laura in studio to discuss that and more in the second part of a two-part interview, this one focusing on the big picture, covered in his new book Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.
