Earthgauge Radio

Click the audio player to listen to the latest edition of Earthgauge radio, which is a bi-weekly broadcast every other Thursday morning from 7-8 AM on CKCU 93.1 FM in Ottawa. You can also right click here to download the show.

On today’s show, a CKCU exclusive – special programming on the Keystone XL pipeline proposal. Interviews and speeches from Naomi Klein, NASA scientist James Hansen, author and activist Bill McKibben, Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians and the Hollyword actor and founder of Water Defense, Mark Ruffalo.

To hear individual speeches and interviews, scroll down to see my earlier posts.

Earthgauge radio will be bringing you a broad range of stories and interviews over the weeks and months to come. From climate change to economics, sustainability to science and ethics. Local stories to international. We’ll find the people and organizations who are not waiting for political and corporate leaders to do something about our increasingly serious environmental and economic problems. Many dedicated and inspiring individuals are already changing their lives, building a better world and having a damn good time in the process. We’ll find their stories and bring them to you.

Contact me at markdb1 ‘at’ gmail.com if you have any comments, suggestions for stories or if you live in Ottawa and want to get involved with the show. I welcome your input!

Click the audio players below to hear my interviews from the Keystone XL protest in Washington, D.C. last weekend with NASA scientist James Hansen; author and activist Bill McKibben and the Council of Canadians’ Maude Barlow.

James Hansen 

It was a rare pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with Dr. James Hansen, renowned NASA scientist and one of the world’s leading climatologists. He heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, a part of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.

Right click here to download the interview (3:18).

Bill McKibben

If there is one individual who can be credited with building the U.S. climate change movement to the level of influence it has reached today, it is Bill McKibben. In addition to being an author and journalist, McKibben has been a tireless environmental and climate activist. He is the author of several books and is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine.

Right click here to download the interview (1:55).

Naomi Klein

I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with author, journalist and activist Naomi Klein when I attended the Keystone XL pipeline protest in Washington, D.C. this past weekend. Klein is the author of several books including The Shock Doctrine and No Logo. She is a contributing editor for Harper’s magazine and writes a regular column for the Nation and the Guardian newspaper. She has also written articles for Rolling Stone, the Huffington Post, the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail, among many other publications.

Click the audio player above to to hear my interview (3:05) or right click here to download.

Mark Ruffalo

I had a quick chat last weekend in D.C. with actor and activist Mark Ruffalo about the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and his organization Water Defense, which is trying to bridge the movements working to stop mountain top removal, hydro fracking, tar sands mining, and other destructive practices that threaten our dwindling global supply of clean water. Among other causes, Ruffalo has been a dedicated and passionate campaigner against the practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for shale gas extraction in the U.S. He is also an acclaimed actor, having appeared in movies such as The Kids are Alright, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Shutter Island.

Click on the audio player above or right click here to download the interview (4:05).

Maude Barlow

Maude Barlow is another person I’ve been trying to interview for some time. In our discussion, she is refreshingly upbeat in her assessment of the prospects of stopping both Keystone XL and the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines. Sure enough, mere days after the Keystone protest in D.C., President Obama announced that he would be delaying until 2013 his decision on whether or not to grant a permit to TransCanada to construct the pipeline.

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She is the recipient of 11 honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award, the Citation of Lifetime Achievement and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. In 2008/2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the UN. She is also the author of dozens of reports, as well as 16 books, including the international bestseller Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

Right click here to download the interview (2:50).