Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 05.05.15

The escalating campaign to LEGALIZE CANNABIS is the work of our superb guest ERIC STERLING, President of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation and a commissioner on the Maryland state commission implementing medical Cannabis there.

Eric first testified for legalizing cannabis to the Pennsylvania legislature more than four decades ago. He recalls for us the 1972 Schafer Commission, authorized by Congress and appointed by Richard Nixon, that advocated decriminalization. Nixon did his best to suppress the recommendations, which came from a blue-ribbon commission led by a Republican Governor of Pennsylvania. But 43 years later, after more than a million arrests, its wisdom is obvious.

With his decades of leadership on the issue, Eric takes us through the realities of legalization on Colorado and Washington, as well as the recent authorization of medical cannabis in Puerto Rico. He emphasizes that the term marijuana was adopted in the 1930s as a race-based stigmatization for cannabis, which has been used by humankind for a wide range of purposes for many millennia.

Eric also emphasizes the racial and political injustices still being perpetrated by a Drug War whose primary function has been to keep the rich in power while demonizing and disenfranchising those of youth and color.

If youre at all interested in our drug laws, the process of legalizing cannabis and the realities of our criminal justice system, dont miss this show!

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 04.28.15

The fabulous, fascinating FREDA SIDEROFF joins us to describe the GARIFUNA FILM FESTIVAL ( http://garifunafilmfestival.com/2015/03/may-22-25-4th-annual-garifuna-film-festival/ )upcoming May 22-25 in Venice, California.  Freda is a member of the indigenous Garifuna culture, one million humans strong, based largely in the Caribbean regions of St. Vincent, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras….but with “diaspora” representatives through the western hemisphere.    

Currently a resident of Topanga Canyon, Freda tells us in transcendent detail about the ethereal nature of the Garifuna culture, which dates back way before Columbus, has been mixed with African immigration,  and continues to thrive throughout the Americas.

Her festival is a celebration of indigenous cultures, featuring the likes of ALUNA, a gorgeous exploration of native resistance to the destruction of our planet.  GARIFUNA MEDICINE tells us about an indigenous hospital in rural central America, completely off-grid, powered entirely by solar energy.  

The festival also features a talk from Joseph Paulino, the police chief of the San Bernardino City School System, himself a Garifuna.  And a performance by Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl, the resident Aztec dance group at Tia Chucha’s Centro in the San Fernando Valley.

Needless to say, Freda is a brilliant representative of a  beautiful nature-based culture with much to offer to a mass society poised on the brink of self-destruction.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 04.14.15

The ATTACK ON RENEWABLES IN OHIO is dissected and made understandable by the brilliant NED FORD, the Cincinnati-based expert who has translated the state’s mutated energy policies for years on end.

In 2008 Ohio adopted a forward-looking bi-partisan energy policy designed to promote efficiency and renewables and bring Ohio into the 21st Century.  Like other midwestern states, Ohio has been hooked on coal.  But to meet federal air quality standards, many of the old Buckeye coal burners are scheduled to shut down in 2016.  Ohio’s excellent northern wind resource, plus new renewable and efficiency, have been poised to pick up the slack.

But since 2010 and the coming of a new Republican regime, led by Governor John Kasich, an industry attack has gutted Ohio’s green-powered future….and with it the prospects of many other states who are following in the same polluted footprint.

Ned Ford provides us a stunningly clear, concise picture of how this is happening.  If you are interested in a green-powered future, this show is a vital resource.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 04.07.15

RANDY HAYES of FOUNDATION EARTH (FDNEARTH.ORG) give us an astonishing overview of the ecological crisis we now face on planet Earth, and how to solve it.

A founder of the legendary Rainforest Action Network, Randy’s decades of activism and deep green analysis make him a fascinating, erudite witness to what it will take to survive amidst unparalleled challenges to sustaining our life support systems.   

Randy starts with a call to double the planet’s forest cover and then takes us through his brilliant, profoundly vital Nine Planetary Ecological Boundaries.

Full of uniquely articulated insight and hard-fought wisdom, this hour just flows by.  Don’t miss it.

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 03.31.15

MOVE TO AMEND (https://movetoamend.org/wethepeopleamendment ) wants to change our Constitution so corporations can’t buy our elections and run our government.  We’re joined by Frank Hribar of Mentor, Ohio, a long-time Move to Amend activist who tells us about the resolution passed by his small home town demanding an end to corporate domination.  A state-wide convention just held in central Ohio has joined a national wave of activism aimed at finding ways to free our political and economic systems from the curse of corporate personhood.  

In the course of our discussion we read through the actual amendment designed to restore power to the public.  Be sure to take a listen.

We’re then joined by GEORGE SAKHEIM, a 91-year-old Jewish World War II vet, born in Germany, who translated the testimony of Nazi #2 Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials.  An unrepentant Goering made no apologies for his murderous actions.  

Nor did Rudolph Hoess, SS Commandant of Auschwitz, who was personally responsible for at least 2.5 million deaths.  Sakheim tells us that at the end of his life, the rock-hard Hoess confessed his “sins” and asked forgiveness.  

Sakheim’s unique, astounding story from the very core of the post-Nazi inferno must be heard to be believed.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 03.24.15

A SOLAR-POWERED EARTH is our topic with the astonishing STEVE STRONG, one of our great green pioneers. Steve’s SOLAR DESIGN company has blown through many of the corporate and regulatory barriers to bring renewable technologies into the engineering and construction mainstream. Among other things, Steve coordinated the solar installations at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading learning institution for the spread of renewable technologies.

After a stint working on the Alaska pipeline, Steve founded Solar Design in the mid 1970s to push sustainable energy use into a whole new frontier of home, office and industrial construction. Today his company is promoting community-based solar model that can allow people whose rooftops can’t sustain photovoltaic panels to own their own renewable generation with shared solar farms.

Steve makes it clear that the technologies that now plague our planet—coal, oil, nukes & gas—can be effectively replaced with renewables bringing their huge upsides of economy, community control and ecological preservation. 

We are also visited by FRANK DEBAR of MOVE TO AMEND, who announces for us this upcoming weekend’s conference at the Unitarian Church at 95 Weishheimer Road in Columbus, Ohio. Aimed at overturning corporate personhood and all its many plagues, we’ll have a full report on this conference and the on-going work Move to Amend is doing on a later show.

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 03.10.15

We go from UNPLUG NUCLEAR POWER to OCCUPY and the DANDELION INSURRECTION!

For Fukushima Day, activist JOE DE MARE of Bowling Green, Ohio, lays out the terms of the annual 3/11 power down to commemorate the horrific disaster that still pollutes our precious Pacific (http://www.toledofreepress.com/tag/nuclear-energy/ ).  Joe tells us how every year a multi-stage UNPLUG boycott of electric use emphasizes public opposition to corporate control of our energy supply.  He explains that while the Bowling Green utility owns 6 of its own windmills, it’s also signed on to a devastating power purchase contract with a coal-burning utility that is undermining the community’s economy.

From RIVERA SUN we hear about solar energy and utility issues in the New Mexico town of Taos, where she and her partner live in a solar-heated home.  Rivera is an OCCUPY ACTIVIST ( http://www.riverasun.com ) and radio host who’s written and community/self published three novels including BILLIONAIRE BUDDHIST and THE DANDELION INSURRECTION.  With a beautiful voice and a gentle soul, Rivera tells us of her excursions into non-violence and of what too much money can do to people.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 02.24.15

With guest MARK DOWIE, one of the great investigative reporters of our generation.  Decades ago Mark broke the Ford Pinto story, and has followed it with literally scores of investigative pieces that have helped change the world.

Mark is now working on a fascinating book about the HAIDA GWAII, an astonishing First Nation living on about 150 islands in the great Canadian northwest.  The Haida Gwaii have successfully protected their beautiful lands from extractive industries in a unique centuries-long campaign that Mark will explain in his next book, being published by Inkshares.  Don't miss this amazing discussion.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 02.17.15

The great DR. HELEN CALDICOTT comes to us live from Australia with news of her upcoming NUCLEAR FREE PLANET SYMPOSIUM ( http://nuclearfreeplanet.org) scheduled for February 28/March 1 in New York City.  

Helen's astonishing global network has attracted some of the world's great thinkers on nuclear issues including NOAM CHOMSKY, BOB ALVAREZ, BRUCE GAGNON and many others to a summit discussion of how our species might survive in a nuke-saturated situation.

Helen begins with a disturbing discussion of actions in Ukraine and the threat to the 15 atomic reactors still operating there.  She warns that the death toll from Chernobyl has climbed over a million and that the western campaign to "back Putin into a corner" is fraught with danger.

She also recalls seeing the film classic ON THE BEACH as a teenager and the impact it had, leading her to show it again at the upcoming symposium.  

Dr. Caldicott always brings the very best in medical and ecological wisdom. Don't miss her latest visit to Solartopia.  

Solartopia Green Power And Wellness Hour - 02.10.15

THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS NUKE might well be DAVIS-BESSE near Toledo, Ohio. Its Keystone Kop litany of shoddy construction, operator mishap and completely uncaring mis-management is unique---and uniquely dangerous.

But Ohio citizens now have a chance to shut it down by denying it the huge rate hike its owners are asking for this crumbling, decrepit reactor and at least one additional coal burner.

We're joined by local attorney TERRY LODGE and KEVIN KAMPS of BEYOND NUCLEAR, along with TIM JUDSON of the NUCLEAR INFORMATION & RESOURCE SERVICE. They fill us in on the sorry history and perilous present of this insanely faulty reactor.

Join us to hear atomic realities you couldn't make up. Here's how you might help shut this thing:

Write the PUCO at: docketing@puc.state.oh.us

Here is the label folks should use in the subject line of the email, as well as the body of the email message, so PUCO can route the public comments to the correct proceeding:

OPPOSITION COMMENT UNDER CASE # 14-1297-EL-SSO