Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour

BIKES!  BIKES!  BIKES!  we talk with CHARLES KOMANOFF one of the great pioneers in the urban cycling movement, dating back to the 1970s and the rise of bicycle/people power in Manhattan. 

Charlie has been present at the creation of some of the great breakthroughs in the amazing spread of bike commuting and transport now a factor in hundred of cities all over the world.  He tells us of the two-wheeler's transformational impact on "Livable Streets"... and as the machine that makes human beings the most energy efficient of all animals on this planet.

The bicycle is, after all, the device that won the Vietnam War, and may ultimately help us win the war to save this planet as well, thanks in no small part to the savvy, articulate advocacy of folks like Charlie Komanoff.  Listen in as he glides through it all in the tones of one who knows….

SOLAR POWER is now a $100 billion industry, and NEVILLE WILLIAMS has been present at the creation.  His new SUN POWER tells the riveting story of his evolution from a Vietnam War correspondent to a solar entrepreneur who helped start two very successful green companies.  One of those companies has fit more than 100,000 homes in India with panels that give them their light.  Another has done tens of millions of dollars worth of installations throughout our nation's capital.

Neville's personal acquaintance with the great Arthur C. Clarke and his decades of amazingly effective work in the solar business make for great radio listening---and for some real guidelines on how to plunge into an industry whose Childhood's End is very much at hand….with trillions of dollars about to be made while saving the Earth for generations to come.  

We celebrate EARTH DAY in Solartopia with the great MICHAEL MARIOTTE, president of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service and editor of the GREENWORLD Blog.

Michael's unique expertise takes us on a tour of the collapsing nuclear power industry in Europe, the US and Japan while we ride on the astonishing rise of the global renewable energy industry.  As Michael points out, it's now cheaper in many parts of the United States to solar on your rooftop and leave the grid altogether than it is to stay with the dying fossil-nuke dinosaur.

As we celebrate our planet, don't miss hearing from a life-long activist whose unique power & expertise has helped make our staying much more feasible.

We dissect the monumental study by the INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE with solar pioneer SCOTT SKLAR and TIM JUDSON of the Nuclear Information & Resource Service.  This authoritative survey by the IPCC has offered a powerful endorsement of renewable energy as the ultimate solution to our climate chaos, and Scott and Tim explain how.

In particular, the IPCC warns that the world must take action very quickly to save our climate balance, but that with renewables and efficiency it can be done.  It lays out many of the serious problems with atomic power and should help put to bed the false notion that nukes can help.  

In fact, both Tim and Scott lay out the details of why the transition we must make leaves nukes in their radioactive dust.

Don't miss this definitive dive into the devastating details of why climate change is real and how renewables can solve the problems that atomic energy has made so much worse.

TRUTHDIG.COM Managing Editor PETER SCHEER joins us for a free-range romp through today's political scene, from Barack Obama and the politics of race to nuclear power, global warming and the grim realities of the Los Angeles "River" and its desperate restoration.

Peter manages one of America's few remaining independent news outlets, a lively, eclectic website that has somehow survived the winds of change at the intersect between the internet and the news biz.  From Jerry Brown to Hillary Clinton and beyond, this show follows suit.  It's open talk radio the way Solartopia means it to be.   

English: Internationally recognized symbol. Deutsch: Gefahrensymbol für Radioaktivität. Image:Radioactive.svg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These are the world's leading researchers on the health impacts from atomic radiation as manifested around commercial reactors.  Their peer-reviewed studies show definitively that when nuclear reactors shut, the health of the downwind human population improves.  That radiation from FUKUSHIMA has impacted human beings throughout the United States.  That CHERNOBYL has killed at least a million people around the world.  And that the commercial reactors don't need to melt down and explode to destroy the health of the people living near by.

Next time someone tells you atomic energy is safe, send them to listen to Joe and Janette for this definitive hour deep in the heart of Solartopia….

Color photograph of the Three Mile Island nuclear generating station, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979. The reactors are in the smaller domes with rounded tops (the large smokestacks are just cooling towers). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

DEFINITIVE PROOF OF THE DEATH TOLL AT DIABLO CANYON comes to us from two great experts.  DR. JERRY BROWN of the World Business Academy and JOE MANGANO, MPH, report of their just-released study showing a clear rise in the death rate around California's 2 remaining atomic reactors at San Luis Obispo.  

Joe also discusses definitive health studies showing the death toll at Three Mile Island and tells us what to expect when sea-borne radiation arrives on the beaches of California.  Mangano's studies were the first to show the impacts in the United States from the radiation that came here by air just five days after the explosions and Fukushima, and he warns that worse is yet to com.  

If you are at all concerned about the on-going dangers of radiation from atomic reactors near and far, this powerful interview lays the foundation for a scientific basis for global concern.  

FUKUSHIMA RADIATION ALL OVER AMERICA is the grim reality we now face.  We hear from MICHAEL COLLINS whose www.enviroreporter.com in southern California has done the breakthrough reporting 
on the detection of radioactive fallout from Fukushima.  Collins tells us that Geiger Counter readings from the California coast to Death Valley to Texas, Florida and elsewhere are showing huge spikes in 
radiation that can only be coming from Japan.  The implications for the health of all living things are horrifying, but this is the post-Apocalyptic planet we now occupy.

To open the show we get a roundup from NICK THABIT at http://fukushimathirdanniversaryevents.blogspot.com on the dozens of protests, gatherings, rallies, etc that happened around the world to
commemorate the beginning of the Fukushima disaster.

FUKUSHIMA: THE STORY OF A DISASTER is the work of DAVID LOCHBAUM and SUSAN STRANAHAN who give us the inside scoop on what really went wrong in Japan.  Long-time veterans of the industry and the issue, Dave & Susan joined with the UNION OF CONCERNED SCENTISTS' Ed Lyman to co-author this definitive piece on the on-going disaster there.  Susan and Dave give us the details on the numerous US reactors that face similar catastrophe, ranging from California's Diablo Canyon the Indian Point, just north of New York City. The superb, deeply informative hour is not to be missed by anyone planning to live on this planet much longer.

SAFE ENERGY IN THE SOUTHEAST as the Solartopia Show is honored by long-time activists TOM CLEMENTS and SARA BARZCAK.  These Solartopiam stalwarts fill us in on the battles over federal loan guarantees for the overpriced, untested and uninsurable AP-1000 reactors being built in Georgia on your taxpayer dollars, and the two more being rammed down the throats of South Carolina ratepayers.  These "vanguard" new nukes are the last vile hope of an industry headed rapidly down the tubes, along with the equally unproved "small modular reactors" which don't really exist but seem to sound good to that caterpillar on the mushroom.

We are initially joined by NICK THABIT who fills us in on the exciting new demonstrations being planned for the March 11 anniversary of the start of the Fukushima disaster.  See you in Solartopia!