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Green New Deal Tour Comes to Los Angeles – EcoJustice Radio – Episode 34
EcoJustice Radio joined KPFK-FM to interview the voices in and around the Green New Deal Tour in Los Angeles, and our interviewer Jessica Aldridge spoke with oceanographer Josh Willis, former LA DWP Commissioner Aura Vasquez, environmental scientist at Cal State Northridge Loraine Lundquist, D Garcia with Sunrise Movement LA, Varshini Prakash, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Sunrise Movement with Gabbi Pierce also with Sunrise. And finally, Jack Eidt spoke to Bill McKibben, author, educator, environmentalist, and co-founder of 350.org, along with Lydia Ponce from SoCal 350 and a member of American Indian Movement.
Public Banking and the Transition to a Sustainable Economy – EcoJustice Radio- Episode 33
On this episode, Mark Morris speaks with Madeline Merritt, Core Organizer for Public Bank LA and Member of California Public Banking Alliance. She speaks about the campaign supporting AB 857, The Public Banking Act, in an unprecedented partnership between the grassroots and lawmakers. She is a water protector and community organizer who seeks to transform global systems to put the long term interests of people and planet over the short term interests of the few.
Public Banks and the Green New Deal: californiapublicbankingalliance.org/wp-cont…GND.pdf
Women in Politics and the Environment – EcoJustice Radio – Episode 32
Over the past few years, there has been significant growth in US politics of women candidates (especially women of color) and for many this being their first run for office. As of today, there exists a record number of women in congress and more young women and women of color than ever in US History.
On this show, Jessica Aldridge talks with Aura Vasquez, Environmental and Social Justice organizer and Candidate for Los Angeles City Council District 10, on how we change the “old boys club” and what this could mean for bringing social equity to the table.
Sweatshops: LA’s Dirty Secret and the Fight for Garment Workers – EcoJustice Radio Episode 31
Los Angeles is the nation’s garment production capital and the city’s second largest manufacturing sector, yet workers face injustice, usually associated with the developing world, right here in one of the largest cities in the United States. Jessica Aldridge, interviews Mar Martinez, Organizing Coordinator and Wage Theft Clinic Coordinator from the Garment Worker Center, a worker rights organization leading an anti-sweatshop movement to secure social and economic justice for tens of thousands of Los Angeles garment workers.
The Steep Environmental and Social Costs of the Fashion Industry – EcoJustice Radio – Episode 30
When we get dressed in the morning, most of us don’t consider the environmental costs and human rights issues that may be attached to the clothing on our bodies. Jessica Aldridge interviews Andrea Plell, co-founder of The Sustainable Fashion Alliance and West Coast Regional Coordinator for Fashion Revolution, and Jennifer Gilbert, Chief Marketing Officer of I:CO (short for I:Collect). These two women have made it their business to not only consider how to clean up the global fashion industry, advocating for environmentally-supportive and equitable solutions to water pollution, pesticides, microfibers, and waste associated with making, washing, and disposing of our clothing.
Mobilizing a Climate Revolution: From the Personal to a Green New Deal – EcoJustice Radio – Episode 29
Massive climate disruption continues to strike all over the world, one disaster after another, droughts, wildfires, typhoons, mega-floods, with glaciers melting and methane escaping from deep under the permafrost. The UN IPCC said we have 12 more years to stabilize greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to avoid runaway climate change. We need solutions to this problem to spark a climate revolution. Jessica Aldridge speaks with Peter Kalmus, NASA climate scientist and author of Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution and Sam Berndt also a scientist and a coordinator of the Sunrise Movement Los Angeles.
Apache Stronghold: The Spiritual Movement to Save Oak Flat (Chi’chil Bildagoteel) – EcoJustice Radio – Episode 28
Join Stephanie Mushrush, Co-Founder of Red Earth Defense, and Carrie “Cc” Sage Curley, key member of the Apache Stronghold, as they share about the movement to Save Oak Flat (Chi’chil Bildagoteel). Apache Stronghold, led by Wendsler Nosie, Sr. for the last decade, is a spiritual movement to protect the Apache Way of life: their sacred sites and cultural and spiritual heritage. The movement is committed to preventing Resolution Copper, a foreign mining corporation & subsidiary of BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, from desecrating the San Carlos Apache Nation’s ancestral lands. Resolution Copper proposes building an environmentally destructive “block cave” copper mine on Oak Flat, Arizona, which would gravely threaten land, water, air quality, cultural and sacred sites, including areas with petroglyphs and burial grounds of the Apache.
Creating Resilient Ecosystems & Regenerating the Planet with Erik Ohlsen – EcoJustice Radio – Ep. 27
Erik Ohlsen is the director of the Permaculture Skills Center, a vocational training school that offers advanced education in ecological design, landscaping, farming, and land stewardship. Creator of the the Eco-Landscape Mastery School online training program, Erik is also founder of Permaculture Artisans which specializes in design and installation of ecological landscapes and farms throughout California. An internationally renowned, certified permaculture designer and practitioner, Erik has taught ecological landscape design and implementation to thousands of students and clients around the world since 1999. He has special expertise in water harvesting systems, food forest design, and community organizing. His primarily goal is helping people connect deeply with nature and themselves. He resides in Sebastopol, California with his wife Lauren, raising a family, building a homestead and running their businesses.
Nuclear Waste: The Los Angeles Meltdown & Cover-Up – EcoJustice Radio – Ep. 26
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL or Rocketdyne), north of Los Angeles, burned in the November 2018 Woolsey Fire, threatening toxic exposures from contaminated dust, smoke, ash, and soil. In the 1940s, SSFL with its 10 experimental nuclear reactors was developed for research and weapons testing. In 1959, it suffered an uncontained partial meltdown of at least one sodium reactor referred to by experts as the worst nuclear disaster in U.S history, and the fourth largest release of iodine-131 in the history of nuclear power. Until 1979 the incident and the toxic waste byproduct that still pollutes the ground water, air, and soil was kept secret.
Jessica Aldridge from SoCal 350 and Adventures in Waste discusses the issues with Denise Duffield, Associate Director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, and Melissa Bumstead, Mother and local advocate, and a founder of Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab.
Sign This Petition: No More Kids With Cancer: Clean Up the Santa Susana Field Lab
Ku Kia’i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites, Waters and Indigenous Legacies Worldwide Part II
Kumu Mikilani provides an update on the status of Mauna Kea and the inspired movement to stop the construction of the 30-meter TMT telescope, anticipated to be the Northern Hemisphere’s singular largest telescope sponsored by CalTech, University of California and the countries of India, Japan, and Canada. Twelve telescopes have already blighted what native Hawaiians consider their most sacred mountain and pinnacle of their origination cosmologically. The proposed TMT telescope would disturb the fragile ecosystem of the summit which was traditionally accessible only by the high chiefs and priests on rare occasions as well as compromise cultural and spiritual practices of native Hawaiians. Construction of the proposed telescope favors astronomical advancement and development at the expense of designated conservation lands, and would gravely threaten unique flora, fauna and wildlife as well as potentially impact the water table. Mauna Kea is a precedent-setting movement, propelled largely by Hawaiian natives and cultural practitioners who are insisting upon land usage which respects, preserves and honors indigenous cultural and spiritual preservation, as well as protects the vast ecosystem in which their Ancestors live and thrive.
Ku Kia’i Mauna: The Mauna Kea Movement to Protect Sacred Sites – Ep 25 Part I
Kumu Mikilani Young discusses with Carry Kim from EcoJustice Radio about the proposed, highly controversial 30-meter TMT telescope which would be built atop “ceded” conservation lands on Mauna Kea, considered the most sacred mountain for native Hawaiians or Kanaka Ma’oli. The TMT telescope would be the largest telescope in the Northern Hemisphere and is being spearheaded by the University of California, the California Institute of Technology as well as: Japan, China, India and Canada.
Mikilani also speaks on her aims and actions to unite First Nations of California as well as indigenous peoples globally to protect sacred ancestral territories, living waters and the heritage of indigenous peoples for future generations. In this episode, Kumu Mikilani shares the meaning of oli (prayerful chants of Hawai’i), intricacies and origins of the Hawaiian language, the sovereignty and “occupation” of Hawai’i, cultural appreciation vs. appropriation and a conversation about who is “indigenous.” Learn more about the culture of “Aloha Aina,” the “birthright” of Kanaka Ma’oli (native Hawaiians) and their living relationship to Ke Akua (Creator), Na Kupuna (Ancestors) and Na Aumakua (deified Ancestors) — their gods and Ancestors.