Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

Green Power And Wellness - THE DEVIL'S NUKE - 09/02/14

THE DEVIL'S NUKE at Diablo Canyon, California, cannot meet basic earthquake, tsunami, fire hazard or water quality standards.    So DAVID LOCHBAUM of the Union of Concerned Scientists (www.UCSUSA.org) and ROCHELLE BECKER of California's ALLIANCE 4 NUCLEAR RESPONSIBILITY (www.A4NR.org) tell us how this pair of gargantuan reactors between Los Angeles and San Francisco threaten us all.  A newly released report from Nuclear Regulatory Commission Insider Dr. Michael Peck warns that the fault lines surrounding these nukes could deliver shocks far stronger than the plant is designed to withstand.  Dave Lochbaum has written than the plant can't meet basic fire protection criteria.  And Rochelle Becker reports that state law requires major changes to the plant's cooling system that would cost billions of dollars to install.    Grassroots citizen action recently shut two San Onofre reactors to the south.  The question is:  will it do the same to Diablo Canyon before disaster strikes? 

Green Power And Wellness - HIROSHIMA DAY - 08/26/14

HIROSHIMA DAY in Berkeley allowed me the opportunity speak at the Unitarian Meeting House for the August 6, 2014 commemoration of the terrible bombing and ensuing destruction, which is now being matched and more at FUKUSHIMA.  I had the honor and privilege of addressing a room full of fabulous citizen/activists about the burning issues of NUCLEAR POWER, ATOMIC WEAPONS AND OUR SOLARTOPIAN FUTURE on this sacred evening.  The talk was beautifully recorded by Maria Gilardin of WTUC radio, for which we deeply thank her.  We also thank the organizers of this evening, including Phoebe Sorgen, Cynthia Papermaster, Cecile Pineda and so many more.  Cecile, who is author of THE DEVIL'S TANGO, was kind enough to do the introductions.  We hope you find this hour-long presentation challenging and inspiring.

Green Power And Wellness - RICHARD NIXON & HENRY KISSINGER SABOTAGED THE 1968 VIETNAM PEACE TALKS - 08/19/14

RICHARD NIXON & HENRY KISSINGER SABOTAGED THE 1968 VIETNAM PEACE TALKS and cursed us all with 7 more years of war and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.  This "leftist conspiracy theory" which has been dismissed by the right for so many decades has now been definitively confirmed and is 100% part of the "mainstream" American legacy.  DAVID SWANSON, one of America's great peace writer/activists, and attorney BOB FITRAKIS, publisher of www.freepress.org, professor of political science, thoroughly document this explosive reality now being so blithely ignored by the corporate media.  Bob and David also explore, as only they can, the illegal lies that led us into the wars in Iraq and Libya, as well as George H.W. Bush's treasonous delay of the release American hostages in Iran, guaranteeing the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan.  Proving once again that yesterday's "conspiracy theory" is tomorrow's proven historic reality, David and Bob plumb the depths of an imperial war machine that threatens us all while denying it all with ever-decreasing credibility.  

Green Power And Wellness - DOLLAR DEMOCRACY - 08/05/14

PROFESSOR PETER MATHEWS tells us about his DOLLAR DEMOCRACY and how we must rise up to take back the power in this nation from the big corporations.  A writer, teacher, Congressional candidate, Peter is an informed, energetic advocate for the power of the people.    With his book in hand we cover issues of money in politics, the Constitutional Amendment ("Move to Amend") we need to deal with it, with war and empire, GMOs, education and much much more along the path to an enlightened, empowered grassroots nation.  In the opening to DOLLAR DEMOCRACY, the late great Senator Paul Wellstone says "politics is about the improvement of people's lives."  Peter Mathews beautifully expounds how his happens in this bracing, energetic chapter of the ride to Solartopia.  

Green Power And Wellness - BEYOND NUCLEAR - 07/22/14

Amidst chaos and danger on the world scene we hear from KEVIN KAMPS of BEYOND NUCLEAR (www.beyondnuclear.org) on how vulnerable our atomic reactors really are.  From tissue-paper "containment" domes to terrorist targetings, vulnerable spent fuel pools, danger from "inland tsunamis" caused by dam breaks, exposed water pumps, unprotected control rooms and much more, we hear just some of the bad news about how a really dangerous world is made even more so by atomic reactors.  Kevin further fills us in about the bad times at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where thoroughly corrupted William Magwood refuses to resign despite his multitude of direct conflicts of interest with the industry he is supposed to regulate.  We're then joined by PAUL GUNTER, also of Beyond Nuclear, who exposes the conflicts between the United Nations and the horrific health impacts of the radiation from Fukushima.  Long-standing commitments have made the UN a pro-nuke organization.  With the World Health Organization compromised by agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN refuses to face  the health impacts of atomic energy.    As Paul and Kevin make clear, given what is happening at Fukushima, those impacts are worsening by the day. 

Green Power And Wellness - Veganism - 07/15/14

VEGANISM and the sanctity of animals is our topic with Desert Storm veteran Eriyah Flynn, who gave up meat after reading about the mass slaughter of pigs in an animal rights magazine.  Raised in California, Eriyah has become on of our most ardent advocates of a diet totally free from all animal products.

For moral reasons, and for our personal health and that of the planet, Eriyah brings a personal passion and a wealth of information to what has become one of our most divisive issues.  Lively and informative, Eriyah's captivating style makes this tough, demanding issue easy to digest.  

Green Power And Wellness - FUKUSHIMA IS STILL HAPPENING - 07/08/14

FUKUSHIMA IS STILL HAPPENING as we hear from PAUL GUNTER and KEVIN KAMPS of BEYOND NUCLEAR about the horrific on-going disaster in Japan.  Far from being calmed and cool, the crisis in spent fuel management continues at Fukushima.  Loss of coolant in Unit Five's spent fuel pool has developed.  Units Four, Three, Two and One are also in varying states of flux, to the extent that Tokyo Electric has taken a "vacation" from bring down damaged fuel rods at Unit Four.  Paul also reports that a two-inch piece of spent plutonium fuel has been found more than a mile away from the reactors, along with many other fragments of what was obviously a fission explosion.  That the assault on nuclear regulators in Japan continues.  And that the Japanese people have stood firm against opening any of the 48 other reactors still shut.  NONE of this is being reported in ANY corporate media despite its life-and-death impacts on us all.  Paul and Kevin will be back with us for more reports.  In the meantime, please listen closely and send the links for this important show so others can know that FUKUSHIMA IS NOT OVER!!!

Green Power And Wellness - SOLARTOPIA IS UNDER ATTACK but FIGHTING BACK - 07/01/14

Ohio's swing state legislature has become the first to REPEAL a pro-green portfolio standard meant to promote renewables and efficiency. As JEN MILLER, director of the Ohio Sierra Club tells us, the corporate billionaires from ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) have swung Ohio into anti-Solartopia attack mode.  This is happening all over the country, and Ohio is now the cutting edge of a huge push-back from King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas). With campaign finance laws in ruins, the Koch Brothers are out in full force, and they've smashed their way through in Ohio.  

Meantime, in America's test market---Columbus---CAROLYN HARDING is helping with a COMMUNITY BILL OF RIGHTS designed to allow human beings to control FRACKING and protect themselves from total environmental destruction.  Crafted by the COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, this list of limitations on tracking is headed for the Columbus ballot. Carolyn tells how you and your own community can make this happen nationwide---to save our children and our planet.  

Green Power And Wellness - Fran Koster & Aaron Klein - 06/24/14

The OPTIMISTIC FUTURIST Fran Koster joins Harvey Wasserman on the GREEN POWER & WELLNESS SHOW to talk about the mega-conversion to renewables and the micro-victories people can win in their own communities. Fran changed the world by organizing the mid 1970s TOWARD TOMORROW FAIR at UMass to feature  renewables guru Amory Lovins, wind pioneer William Heronemus and many other great visionaries who shone the light on the solutions to a world being killed by King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas). Fran's book DISCOVERING THE NEW AMERICA also gives us beautiful small stories about how communities have bettered their lives through simple campaigns on issues like when in the morning to begin middle school, how kids should wash their hands and what it can mean to teach prisoners how to cook. See still more at www.optimisticfuturist.org. 

We finish with Aaron Klein of GREENERCORNERS.COM, a rising small business that has placed more than a thousand metal recycling containers in public places. Aaron sells advertising on the containers which are emptied by local recycling businesses and save their host communities serious money in trash management and tipping fees. A classic case of green entrepreneurship, Aaron provides an optimistic reality to our booming Solartopian future.  

Green Power And Wellness - Joseph Mangano - 06/10/14

The Certain Death Toll Among Children at Fukushima is mounting steadily despite the best efforts of the nuclear industry and the United Nations to deny any of it.  We talk with Joseph Mangano of the Radiation and Public Health Project about the horrific epidemic of childhood thyroid cancer among kids living in the area around Fukushima.   

So far the rate of thyroid cancer there is FORTY TIMES (40X) what would normally be expected. They are also experiencing an accelerating increase in pre-cancerous thyroid abnormalities which will almost certainly lead to cancer…involving FORTY-SIX PERCENT of some 250,000 children being studied.  

According to Mangano, who has been studying these health effects for decades, statistics from THREE MILE ISLAND and CHERNOBYL confirm the pattern of death and disease downwind from atomic reactor disasters.  Mangano's work also shows that when a "normal" reactor shuts down, the health of the downwind public improves.  Such assertions have been confirmed by the numbers in studies from Columbia University, in Canada and throughout Belarus and Ukraine, downwind from Chernobyl.  

If you are concerned about your health and that of your children, don't miss this riveting, devastating investigation.