Professor Jules Boykoff on media coverage of global warming and political activism
Prof. Boykoff
This week, Dr. Caldicott explores politics and media activism with Jules Boykoff, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics and Government at Pacific University, in Forest Grove, Oregon. In 2006, Prof. Boykoff was an invited speaker at the United Nations climate change conference in Nairobi, based on his research and writing on media coverage of climate disruption. His writing on activism has appeared recently in New Left Review, the Guardian, Oregon Historical Quarterly, the Nation, and CounterPunch. For background, read the article Reheating the Climate Change Story: The media have dropped climate change, with its tricky science. But cast in economic terms, it could recapture public interest.
Best of 2010: Dr. Janette Sherman on the true magnitude of the Chernobyl meltdown and the staggering health effects of nuclear radiation
Monday, March 21st, 2011
Dr. Janette Sherman
This week, in light of the still unfolding nuclear accident in Japan, we play for the third time Dr Caldicott's May 17, 2010 interview with Janette D. Sherman, M.D. on the long-term effects of the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.
Dr. Sherman translated and edited the book Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and Nature, published by the New York Academy of Sciences in December 2009, which indicates that nearly one million people were killed by the Chernobyl disaster. Download and read the book for free by following the instructions on this page. Dr. Sherman has been an advisor to the National Cancer Institute on breast cancer and to the EPA on pesticides. She is a resource person and speaker for universities and health advocacy groups concerning cancer, birth defects, pesticides, toxic dumpsites, and nuclear radiation. Dr. Sherman is a specialist in internal medicine and toxicology. She has published more than 70 articles in the scientific literature and also writes for the popular press to provide (more…)
Prue Acton on how logging Australian forests contributes to global warming and kills native wildlife
Pru Acton (Schoo's Studio)
This week, we hear Dr. Caldicott's recent conversation with Prue Acton, artist, internationally recognized clothing designer and spokesperson for an alliance of conservation groups in Australia called SERCA (South East Region Conservation Alliance). In the 1980's, Acton became involved with naturalists in Victoria, Australia who showed her the impact of industrial-scale logging and the ever-increasing demand for woodchips for the local and Japanese paper markets. Having since moved to the southeast coast of New South Wales in Australia, within close distance to the Nippon Paper-owned chipmill at Eden, she has increased her efforts toward conservation. Acton addresses how depleting Australia's forests kills native wildlife and greatly contributes to global warming. Read the March 2010 article Logging starts, koala battle goes on.
Professor Gordon Edwards on the perils of nuclear technology, uranium mining, and weapons proliferation
Prof. Gordon Edwards
On If You Love This Planet this week, Dr. Caldicott talks with Dr. Gordon Edwards, one of Canada's best known independent experts on nuclear technology, uranium, and weapons proliferation. Dr Edwards is also the co-founder of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR). He was instrumental in bringing about a halt to uranium exploration in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia. Dr. Edwards was awarded the 2006 Nuclear-Free Future Award in the Education Category, and in 2009 he addressed the annual meeting of Physicians for Global Survival in Ottawa.