If You Love This Planet, Dr. Helen Caldicott

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If You Love This Planet continues to replay some of our most popular programs through February 2010, as well as offering some new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will start a whole new season of programs. Here is Dr. Caldicott’s August 25, 2008 interview with Lily Tomlin, one of America’s most loved writers, comediennes and actresses. Tomlin talks with her long-time friend Dr. Caldicott about the political climate in the U.S. and her sense of desperation about the direction the U.S. administration was taking under then-President George W. Bush. Most of the conversation is still relevant as President Obama continues many of his predecessor’s foreign and domestic policies. Tomlin reminisces about her experiences in the peace movement after meeting Dr. Caldicott, and describes her childhood and early creative influences in Detroit, Michigan. Tomlin is one of the featured commentators / bloggers on The Women on the Web, “A New Way for Women to Talk Culture, Politics & Gossip.”

Relevant to this discussion with Ms. Tomlin are Chris Hedges’s 2009 article Liberals Are Useless and his 2010 article The Pictures of War You Aren’t Supposed to See. Also check out Amy Goodman’s February 5 interview with authors Robert McChesney and John Nichols on their book “The Death and Life of American Journalism.” Read the articles ‘Peace Prize’ President Submits Largest War Budget Ever; Wars Sending US into Ruin; Don’t Call It a ‘Defense’ Budget; Legacy of War: Iraq Littered With High Levels of Nuclear and Dioxin Contamination, Study Finds; Remember the Illegal Destruction of Iraq?; Pentagon to Increase Stock of High-Altitude Drones; Violence Against Women Is a Global Struggle; Fox Most Trusted News Channel in US, Poll Shows; Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change; Seniors Wait on Care, Grow Sicker as Copays Rise; and US Households Struggle to Afford Food: Survey. And see Dr. Caldicott’s February 2, 2010 article How Did an Idealistic President Become a Champion of Nuclear Power and By Default, Weapons Proliferation?

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Photo Credit: Department of Energy (courtesy Natural Resources Defense Council)

If You Love This Planet continues to replay some of our most popular programs through February 2010, as well as offering some new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will start a whole new season of programs. Here is Dr. Caldicott’s September 29, 2008 interview with respected anthropologist, author and lecturer Professor Hugh Gusterson from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which they delve into the psychology of nuclear weapons scientists and designers. Drawing on his extensive field research at U.S. weapons laboratories Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos, Prof. Gusterson discusses with Dr. Caldicott the moral and emotional approach of the weapons designers; the terminology used among the scientists which is not only thick with metaphors of birth and fertility, but also denies death (weapons victims would be “carbonized,” not incinerated); and the present recruitment by the Department of Energy of anthropologists to be involved in counterinsurgency. His books include Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War, People of the Bomb: Portraits of America’s Nuclear Complex and Why America’s Top Pundits are Wrong.

Prof. Gusterson and Dr. Caldicott also cover the hypocrisy and veiled racism of the U.S. government and attendant media in demonizing other countries which want to build atomic bombs, while the U.S. retains an enormous arsenal of bombs and continues to make more. They also consider why traditionally right-wing voices such as Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, and four former British foreign or defense secretaries, now want to abolish nuclear weapons. Prof. Gusterson cites many encouraging successes on the road toward global nuclear disarmament, to discredit the idea that “the nuclear genie can never be put back in the bottle”. Read Prof. Gusterson’s columns on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists page. For updated information on what the U.S. nuclear weapons labs are up to, visit the Web sites of Tri-Valley CAREs and Western States Legal Foundation. See the February 1, 2010 Tri-Valley CAREs press release, Administration Budget Plan Contradicts Obama Pledge. Read Dr. Caldicott’s February 2, 2010 article in The Huffington Post about President Obama’s increased spending for nuclear weapons, despite his earlier disarmament pledges, and his enthusiastic support for nuclear power.

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In this program, Dr. Caldicott interviews pre-eminent eco-feminist scholar, physicist and ecologist Vandana Shiva. Ph.D. on the political, economic and environmental impacts of India’s Green Revolution, and present-day global corporate agriculture models. Dr. Shiva was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. Books she has written include Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis, and other books. As members of the International Scientific Advisory Committee to Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero, Dr. Caldicott and Dr. Shiva attended a conference in July, 2009 gathering the world’s leading environmental and economic thinkers to advise the Spanish government on sustainable ecological practices. This conversation was recorded in Madrid, Spain. As background, read the January 6, 2010 article Activist: Farmer Suicides in India Linked to Debt, Globalization which quotes Dr. Shiva.

Dr. Caldicott starts the interview by praising Dr. Shiva for her stance against corporations like Monsanto which are patenting and genetically modifying seeds and preventing farmers in India from planting traditional crops.
Dr. Shiva describes the beginnings of her activism in 1984 when parts of India saw violence in opposition to chemical companies forcing local farmers to use toxic pesticides and fertilizers. She debunks myths about the “Green Revolution” which she says has had a markedly destructive effect on farmers and food safety, and refers to the Bhopal gas explosion in India which has killed over 33,000 people since 1984. She mentions her book The Violence of the Green Revolution. Read Dr. Shiva’s 1991 article, The Green Revolution in the Punjab, which is extracted from this book.

Dr. Caldicott and Dr. Shiva look at how war production in World War II laid the basis for pesticide companies. They address the rise in genetically modified organizations (GMOs) and the reduction of biodiversity into monocultures. Dr. Shiva talks about the propaganda that use of chemicals to grow crops will generate more food, when in fact the reverse is true. She points to the groundbreaking research in the field of organic, chemical-free farming by Sir Albert Howard, who wrote the book The Agricultural Testament [read it here]. The interview also examines the topic of food miles – the enormous carbon footprint of most food that is now shipped great distances – and how land is being “grabbed” all over the world to grow food and export it, and how increasing urbanization is encroaching on traditional agriculture. Listen to Dr. Caldicott’s September 14, 2009 interview with land-grab expert Alexandra Spieldoch of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. See the articles Eating local means figuring out your “food miles” and Do Food Miles Matter? Reducing Meat & Dairy Consumption May Be Even More Important.

Dr. Caldicott asks how Indian farmers were made to use products from chemical and pesticide companies on their land. Dr. Shiva provides background starting with the 1960s, and points to the role of the U.S. corporations and foundations in promoting agrichemicals during the Green Revolution. She says the same players are now patenting seeds and creating genetically-engineered foods. She describes the World Trade Organization (WTO) and how its rules totally favor large corporations and punish small farmers. Dr. Shiva’s organization Navdanya focuses on keeping ancient and non GMO-seeds in farmer’s hands. Dr. Caldicott asks Dr. Shiva about non-toxic methods of fertilization used in India, and Dr. Shiva explains various natural fertilizers that renew soil fertility and achieve pest control.
The conversation moves to “terminator” seeds created by companies like Monsanto, and Dr. Shiva explains in depth the two kinds of man-made seeds that are non-renewable, both of which represent what she calls “an assault on life” and “biowarfare.” Dr. Caldicott asks which companies are profiting from this technology, and Dr. Shiva names the major players such as Monsanto, which produces 90% of the genetically engineered seeds. She says the WTO only exists to enable corporations to increase their profits and their market share. Dr. Shiva says the same corporations taking over rights to seeds and altering seeds are the ones working to change food safety laws. She explains the toxicity of bacillus thuringiensis (BT) used in rice, cotton and other crops, and how it destroys the soil. Read her 2009 article A plate full of toxins and her 1998 article Who Is Afraid Of Biosafety? And see the February 2, 2010 article Wide and vociferous protests against this genetically modified Bt brinjal.

At one point, Dr. Caldicott mentions her book If You Love This Planet (2009) which looks at the problem of pesticides in the chapter on toxic pollution. Dr. Caldicott asks about bees, and Dr. Shiva comments on the role of GMOs in colony collapse disorder. Dr. Shiva says the role of BT cotton, pesticides and GMOs in the decline of honeybees has not been studied much. She explains how pesticide manufacturers aim to sell more chemicals, not reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture. Dr. Caldicott then shifts the discussion to biofuels. Dr. Shiva says big corporations are moving into biofuels despite their negative impact on climate change, and corn that should be a food source is used by cars. She says that the race to grow crops for biofuels is also a race to grab land for big agribusiness around the world. Read the article One Quarter of US Grain Crops Fed to Cars - Not People, New Figures Show. Dr. Shiva notes the enormous number of farmer suicides in India in the last decade. Read the January 6, 2010 CNN article Vandana Shiva: Farmer Suicides in India Linked to Debt, Globalization. In the conclusion of the program, Dr. Shiva reviews solutions to the problems presented earlier in the program, solutions which involve returning food sovereignty to local communities and away from polluting corporations. Dr. Caldicott asks about the peak oil problem, and how agriculture will be impacted when the world runs out of oil. Dr. Shiva provides a hopeful model of a sustainable food system that would be able to withstand the lack of petroleum, and emphasizes how important it will be (and how satisfying) for many more people to grow their own food. Listen to
Dr. Caldicott’s October 6, 2008 interview with peak-oil expert Richard Heinberg.

For more information on some of the topics addressed in this episode, visit the website of Dr. Shiva’s organization Navdanya: Research Foundation for Science,Technology and Ecology. Read the article EU Farmers Face Genetic Contamination of Seeds. Watch the 2008 French documentary (with English translation) The World According to Monsanto. Listen to the two-part program about the rise of corporate power in the 20th Century, Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda. Visit the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology page of the Organic Consumers Association Web site. Also read about the International Forum on Globalization. See the Greenpeace page, Say No to Genetic Engineering. Read the 2009 Greenpeace report Agriculture at a Crossroads: Food for Survival. Read the Earth Island Journal article The Plight of the Honeybee. Read about How to Start a Community Seed Bank and Creating a backyard vegetable garden. Also check out the 9-minute video Eat the Suburbs: Gardening for the End of the Oil Age.

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If You Love This Planet continues to replay some of our most popular programs through February 2010, as well as offering some new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will start a whole new season of programs. Here is Dr. Caldicott’s
July 28, 2008 interview with
Dr. Alan Robock, a Professor II at the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University.
Dr. Robock is a meteorologist who has studied the effects of nuclear winter since the 1980s. Most recently, he has examined the climatic effects of regional nuclear conflicts and the effects of global warming.

In this program, Dr. Robock talks with Dr. Caldicott about how a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, which each have 10,000 nuclear weapons, could trigger nuclear winter, while detonating even one-third of their collective arsenals would cause catastrophic climate change. A nuclear war between India and Pakistan would wreak major havoc with global temperatures and agriculture. For more information, see the Climatic Consequences of Nuclear Conflict page on Dr. Robock’s website, which includes a May 2009 PowerPoint presentation and several earlier articles, reports and movies based on his nuclear winter research. Read the January 19, 2010 Tree Hugger article, Nuclear Winter: Now Easier to Trigger than Ever (In Short: We’d be F#%^ed) which references
Dr. Robock’s work studying nuclear winter. Also see the 2008 Tree Hugger article Regional Nuclear War Could Create the Mother of all Ozone Holes about the study by University of Colorado at Boulder scientists Brian Toon and Michael Mills, Massive Global Ozone Loss Predicted Following A Regional Nuclear Conflict. The show ends with a brief excerpt of a lecture Dr Caldicott gave at an early childhood conference in 2007.

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If You Love This Planet continues to replay some of our most popular programs through February 2010, as well as offering some new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will start a whole new season of programs. Here is Dr. Caldicott’s May 11, 2009 interview with Maude Barlow, a Canadian author and activist on water issues, along with a clip of a speech
Dr. Caldicott gave on nuclear radiation. Holding seven honorary doctorates, Barlow is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, a progressive citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. In October 2008, she was named Senior Advisor on Water Issues by the President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann. Barlow founded the Blue Planet Project “to protect the world’s fresh water from the growing threats of trade and privatization”. She is the author of 16 books including her latest title Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water as well as Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water. In 2005, she won the Right Livelihood Award (the alternative Nobel Prize).

In this interview, Barlow discusses with Dr. Caldicott the water crisis and mismanagement occurring in different parts of the world, particularly the fights in both the Third World and the First World against the privatization of water by large corporations. Barlow’s activism is focused on establishing the right to water as a basic human right in all societies, which she says all nation-states and the United Nations should mandate. Read the January 8, 2010 CNN article quoting Barlow with an accompanying three-minute video clip of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., ‘Water justice’ advocate: Don’t privatize. The full transcript of a 15-minute January 7, 2010 CNN program on water, in which Barlow was interviewed by Christiane Amanpour, can be read here. Barlow spoke in March 2009 at the Fifth World Water Forum, the proceedings of which can be accessed here. Read Blue Planet’s Preliminary Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council RE: Decision 2/104: Human Rights and Access to Water. Also see A UN Convention on the Right to Water: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.

Barlow explains how the world is running out of fresh water, and how we are creating deserts in many parts of the world because of the way we exploit the land and waste and pollute the water. She underlines that two billion people live in water-stressed areas. The poor do not have access to safe water, and Barlow describes how every 8 seconds, a child dies of a water-borne disease. Dirty water kills more children annually than AIDS and accidents combined. Groups like Global Water are working to create safe water supplies and sanitation in the developing world. For more on the big picture around water, see the reports World Water Development Report: Water in a Changing World and Climate Change and Water. Also read the article River systems worldwide are losing water due to global warming.

Dr. Caldicott asks Barlow to comment on global warming and overpopulation, before they move on to talk about the enormous impact of water privatization. Dr. Caldicott says she is “shocked to my back teeth” that corporations would move into countries, buy the water supplies and then expect people to buy the water back. Barlow talks about the brutal battles around the world against companies such as the French transnational Suez Environment, which tried to privatize Argentina’s water, and how citizens have been victorious in some of these fights to protect their access to water. The U.S. firm Bechtel attempted to privatize the water in Bolivia as outlined in Bechtel vs. Bolivia: The People Win An International Trade Battle. Also see the report Bechtel’s Dry Run: Iraqis Suffer Water Crisis about how profit is the only motive Bechtel has for controlling Iraq’s water. In the U.S., Atlanta abandoned water privatization as described in No Silver Bullet: Water Privatization in Atlanta, Georgia – a Cautionary Tale. The World Bank, as well as Kofi Annan of the United Nations, to their discredit, have advocated water privatization.

For more background, see Public Citizen’s Water for All Campaign Web site and their pages Water Privatization Overview and ABCs of Water Privatization. Also see the report Water Privatization Fiascos: Broken Promises and Social Turmoil and read the article Is the Water Privatization Trend Ending? Water privatization also results in job loss. Read the May 20, 2009 press release, New Food & Water Watch Study Reveals Privatized Water Systems Result in Job Losses and read the study here. Barlow and Dr. Caldicott mention bottled water. Making the disposable bottles, and transporting them, requires a great deal of energy (which contributes to global warming). Their production also generates toxic waste. Discarded bottles may become part of ocean plastic gyres. Barlow says that several municipalities in Canada are banning bottled water. As discussed on last week’s interview with biologist Maricel Maffini, many plastic water bottles contain potent hormone disruptors and carcinogens. See Dr. Peter Gleick’s blog about water issues, including entries on potential water wars, the amount of plastic bottles we use, conserving water, water to grow beef, etc. Dr. Gleick is the president of the Pacific Institute, which focuses much attention on water and sustainability.

Rainwater collection, Dr. Caldicott and Barlow agree, is an essential component of water conservation. HarvestH2O.com, “The online rainwater harvesting community,” is devoted to education around this issue. See the May 7, 2009 article Harvesting the Rain: An Old Idea Takes on New Life. Rainwater may contain some pollutants but not pharmaceuticals. See the 2008 article Drugs found in drinking water. Barlow notes that some societies, such as rural India, are following centuries-old traditions of water conservation and should serve as role models for the more industrialized world which sees water as an unlimited resource. Since the 1950’s, Barlow says, the human population has increased three-fold, but our water use has increased seven-fold. As societies become more “sophisticated” and industrialized, and emulate the consumer-driven culture of the U.S., they use much more water. The water crisis today also involves the world’s oceans, and Barlow recommends the recent book, Sea Sick, by Alanna Mitchell. She says we must stop thinking of the oceans as a giant waste dump. Barlow explains in depth why desalination is mostly a bad idea, and why more energy-saving and sustainable practices should be put into place to conserve water.

Barlow lays down the five principles of water use and conservation that must be implemented around the world. All the solutions to the water crisis must follow these guidelines. She quotes Martin Luther King Jr. who said that “legislation may not change the heart but it will restrain the heartless.” Read the June 3, 2009 article Another Water World Is Possible: Managing World Water which links to Barlow’s 10 recommended foundations for a well-managed water commons. Read the new report written by Barlow, Our Water Commons, Towards a New Freshwater Narrative. Providing inspiration, Barlow explains how we can restore ecoystems, and actually bring back rain and fresh water. She and Dr. Caldicott agree on the importance of trees in mitigating climate change. How we handle the water crisis, Barlow says, is crucial in dealing with global warming. She says “we must put water and nature in the center. Everything we have and are is from nature, and if we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.”

* * * *

The last third of today’s episode is an excerpt from a lecture given by
Dr. Caldicott in April 2009 at Middlebury College, Vermont, in which she talks about the medical effects of nuclear radiation. In explaining the looming threat posed by nuclear power plants such as Vermont Yankee, she says that most politicians are scientifically illiterate. They do not comprehend the effects of radiation or the causes of global warming. For example, many elected officials think increasing CO2 from the present 387 parts per million (which many scientists says is already beyong the tipping point toward catastrophic climate change) to 550 PPM is acceptable, but in reality such an increase would surely doom the planet. The group Safe Power Vermont wants to shut down Vermont Yankee. In 2007, one of the plant’s cooling towers, supported by rotting wood, collapsed, and water that should be cooling the reactor core spewed out of the broken plant (see photo by anonymous photographer below). Read the May 14, 2009 news article, Residents Forceful: Shut Yankee Nuclear Plant Down.

Dr. Caldicott teaches the audience what would happen if Vermont Yankee, near the Massachusetts border, or the Indian Point reactor, 30 miles from New York City, were to melt down, inducing widespread pandemonium, radiation sickness, and death. She mentions a 2004 report, Chernobyl on the Hudson? The Health And Economic Impacts Of A Terrorist Attack At The Indian Point Nuclear Plant, essential reading about a hypothetical meltdown. If the San Onofre plant, north of San Diego, were to melt down, the same dire effects would engulf much of Southern California. As indicated by this aerial photo, San Onofre could easily be flooded and damaged by the projected 30-foot sea level rise from global warming which could spell disaster for all coastal nuclear plants. A meltdown at any of the 100-odd U.S. nuclear reactors could impact millions of people. This speech also reveals what happened to the 600,000 soldiers who were brought in to clean up after the Chernobyl accident, and Dr. Caldicott explains what percentage of Europe is still radioactive, as suggested by this map showing cesium distribution. See How Chernobyl Could Happen Here about the danger of a U.S. plant accident. She gives examples of how a terrorist or other saboteur could easily melt down a nuclear power plant. And plutonium can be stolen from the plants to make nuclear weapons - read about how a New Generation of Nuclear Power Stations ‘Risk Terrorist Anarchy’. Dr. Caldicott makes it clear how atomic energy plants are really “nuclear bombs” in our midst as they could be intentionally melted down to kill hundreds of thousands of people, “cancer factories” because of the cancers caused by both routine radiation releases and accidents, and “bomb factories” since the material processed in the plants is used to make nuclear weapons.

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In part one of this week’s program, Dr. Caldicott plays a still-timely interview she conducted in 2005 with strategic analyst Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame, as part of Pacifica Radio’s The New Nuclear Danger Series hosted by
Dr. Caldicott. Ellsberg is a former consultant to the U.S. Defense Department and the White House where in the late 1950’s and 1960’s he was an expert on nuclear-war planning and crisis decision-making. In 2006, he won the Right Livelihood Award. His outspoken activism in the Vietnam era is the subject of the new documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America, now showing in theaters worldwide and available in DVD. Read the
February 5, 2010 article Ellsberg Documentary Attracts Wide Audience. Ellsberg is the author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and other books. In their conversation, Dr. Caldicott and Ellsberg comprehensively discuss the dangerous problems of command and control of nuclear weapons, including the first-use policy which the U.S. maintained under then-president George W. Bush and still retains under current president Obama. They express their fears about the George W. Bush administration’s threatened use of nuclear weapons on Iraq in 2003. Dr. Caldicott explains why the world came very close to nuclear war in 1995. Ellsberg calls the continuing hair-trigger alert status of U.S. and Russian weapons “inexcusable.” Consider signing the Physicians for Social Responsibility petition to urge President Obama to de-alert nuclear weapons.

They examine the U.S. missile defense system and how it is perceived by Russia and China, and the pivotal 1986 Reykjavik Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, which could have resulted in a treaty mandating total nuclear disarmament before the negotiations were derailed by Richard Perle. They delve into the psychology and attitudes of George W. Bush while he was still president, what he represented to the frightened American people post-9/11, and the lack of wisdom in allowing one person to control the fate of the earth with nuclear weapons. Dr. Caldicott and Ellsberg also ponder how to mobilize Americans to understand that the nuclear-war threat has not abated after the ostensible end of the Cold War. As explored in Dr. Caldicott’s recently-aired interview with Dr. Bruce Blair, U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons remain on hair-trigger alert and the U.S. president has only moments to decide whether or not to “press the button” in response to a perceived nuclear attack. Read Ellsberg’s August 26, 2009 article Hiroshima Day: America Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for 64 Years. Dr. Caldicott mentions the media-oriented think tank she created in 2003, the Nuclear Policy Research Institute (NPRI). NPRI is now Beyond Nuclear, whose focus is educating the public to demand the elimination of both nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Listen to Dr. Caldicott’s recent interview with Linda Gunter of Beyond Nuclear. Ellsberg recounts his experiences on right-wing TV chat shows which consistently lack antiwar voices to contradict the hawks who are allowed to dominate the discourse. He mentions how then-defense-secretary Donald Rumsfeld was selecting nuclear targets in Iraq before the 2003 bombing and invasion.

For more with Ellsberg, watch the 30-minute interview he did in November 2009, Daniel Ellsberg Speaks With Matthew Hoh on Afghanistan. For more background on the topics in this interview, read Dr. Caldicott’s 2004 book The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush’s Military-Industrial Complex, which outlines the U.S. military’s long-range plans regarding nuclear weapons and the power of the Pentagon and nuclear weapons manufacturers. Most of these plans, and all the major nuclear weapons makers and their relentless lobbyists, are still in place under President Obama, who has not blocked the continued expansion of the U.S. military budget. The U.S. military is very reluctant to abolish its nuclear “deterrent.” See the January 4, 2010 Los Angeles Times article Obama’s nuclear-free vision mired in debate: Pentagon officials have pushed back against the president’s goals to shrink the U.S. stockpile and reduce the role of such weapons in foreign policy, sources say. Once nuclear weapons are marked for disarmament, it make take more than a decade before they are removed. Read U.S. warhead disposal in 15-year backlog.

In the second half of this week’s program, we hear an interview Dr. Caldicott just completed with Professor A.R. Ravishankara, director of the Chemical Sciences Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado and an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department of the University of Colorado. His work focuses on the chemistry of the Earth’s atmosphere, ozone depletion, climate change and air quality. Prof. Ravishankara has won the American Chemical Society’s Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology and the Presidential Rank Award for exceptional contributions to understanding atmospheric chemistry.

Dr. Caldicott and Prof. Ravishankara examine the state of the ozone layer and the chemistry of Earth’s atmosphere as it relates to climate change. As background on Prof. Ravishankara’s most recent findings, read the 2009 articles Laughing gas is biggest threat to ozone layer and New Culprit Seen in Ozone Depletion. Dr. Caldicott asks Prof. Ravishankara to outline the role of banned chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in depleting the ozone layer, and how ozone is formed. He explains the science of CFCs - formerly used in refrigeration, hairspray, foam insulation, and other applications - in ozone destruction. CFCs were banned by the Montreal Protocol in 1989. Prof. Ravishankara also talks about how CFCs are potent global warming gases, and how “banks” of CFCs, produced long ago, could still be emitted from old refrigerators, foam, etc. to destroy the ozone layer if not properly captured and destroyed first.

Dr. Caldicott asks Prof. Ravishankara to differentiate hydrochloroflouro-carbons (HCFCs) gases from CFCs. HCFCs are now used in place of CFCs, but they have their own problems. Read the article CFC Substitutes Fix Ozone Hole, But Speed Up Global Warming and about the study Epidemic of liver disease caused by hydrochlorofluorocarbons used as ozone-sparing substitutes of chlorofluorocarbons. They next turn to nitrous oxide (N2O). He elucidates how industrial use of N2O in agriculture and sewage treatment has greatly increased the natural concentrations of this gas in the lower and upper atmosphere. Prof. Ravishankara outlines how continued use of N2O will sabotage efforts to restore the ozone layer. Prof. Ravishankara talks about how N2O is a significant contributor to climate change (responsible for 6% of greenhouse gas emissions), another reason it should be banned. Read an abstract of Prof. Ravishankara’s nitrous oxide study, Nitrous Oxide (N2O): The Dominant Ozone-Depleting Substance Emitted in the 21st Century and the related article Nitrous oxide fingered as monster ozone slayer.

Dr. Caldicott and Prof. Ravishankara next look at methyl bromide, a pesticide that was banned because of its effect on the ozone layer. Read the 2005 Mother Jones article U.S. farmers ignore international treaty on methyl bromide and the November 13, 2009 Mother Jones article Obama’s Pesticide-Pushing Nominee. Also see An EPA-approved pesticide is worse than the one it’s replacing and California mulls controversial alternative to methyl bromide; some scientists protest, saying chemical is too toxic and the report Examining the evidence on pesticide exposure and birth defects in farmworkers. Dr. Caldicott steers the discussion to nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), used to make flat-screen computer monitors and other commodities. Prof. Ravishankara explains the danger of NF3 in contributing to climate change, but he says that NF3 is not an ozone-depleting chemical. Read The missing greenhouse gas: Growth of the electronics industry will boost emissions of a ‘hidden’ — but extremely potent — greenhouse gas and The Greenhouse Gas That Nobody Knew.

Dr. Caldicott asks about the ozone-depleting gas CFC-114, which though technically banned, can still be used by the U.S. Department of Energy at the uranium enrichment plant at Paducah, Kentucky. Dr. Caldicott talks about the tremendous number of documented leaks from this plant. She notes that 93% of the CFC gases still being emitted come from this plant. Prof. Ravishankara illuminates how CFC-14 not only damages the ozone layer but is also a significant greenhouse gas. Read Uranium Plants Harm Ozone Layer: Kentucky, Ohio Facilities Top List of Polluters. For more on the ozone layer, read Dr. Caldicott’s newly revised book If You Love This Planet which has a lengthy chapter on the ozone layer. See the websites of NOAA’s Stratospheric Ozone page, the United Nations Environment Program’s Ozone Secretariat and The Ozone Hole. Read the
November 11, 2009 article Climate Action Under Ozone Treaty on Hold for Copenhagen Deal. Also check out the December 2009 articles Antarctica may heat up dramatically as ozone hole repairs, warn scientists and Healing the hole in the ozone layer could heat Antarctica. Also see the September 2009 article The size of the hole in the ozone layer and the January 4, 2010 article Why mountains are bad for the ozone layer, a piece originally published in Geophysical Research Letters.

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Photo Credit : ballona.org, wilshirecenter.com

If You Love This Planet is replaying some of our most popular programs through February 2010, as well as offering some new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will start a whole new season of programs. Here is Dr. Caldicott’s October 6, 2008 interview with Richard Heinberg, the Director of the Post Carbon Institute, on the topics of peak oil and peak coal. Heinberg’s institute is a non-profit organization in California that conducts research, educates the public, and organizes leaders to help communities around the world understand and respond to the challenges of fossil fuel depletion and climate change. In this engrossing discussion with Dr. Caldicott, Heinberg explains the impending crisis of peak oil, and reminds us just how reliant our society is on the finite resources of oil, coal and gas. We are reaching a state, he says, where the depletion of these fossil fuels will force us to undergo a major transition to low-energy and re-localized societies with food grown and products made close to home. Heinberg describes how transportation will need to change - currently oil is responsible for 95% of transportation technologies in the United States.

The impending decline in coal, at a time when coal burning is rapidly increasing, is also discussed, and will be the subject of Heinberg’s next book. New research suggests that world coal supplies will be gone in 20 years or less, with China’s coal supply depleted much sooner. Heinberg also draws our attention to the industrialization of food: only 2% of the population in the USA grow food for the rest of the country, and
most food has traveled 1,500 miles from farm to plate.

Heinberg is the author of Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century Of Declines, Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World and other books. He is featured in the documentary films The End of Suburbia and The 11th Hour. Read his articles The View From Oil’s Peak and What Will We Eat as the Oil Runs Out. This program is a startling conversation about the energy crisis with one of the clearest thinking environmental commentators today.

The show concludes with a clip of a speech by Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist James Sterngold, who contends there is insufficient media coverage of nuclear threats. Read Sterngold’s 2008 article in Mother Jones about nuclear weapons here.

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From now through February 2010, we are replaying some of our most popular shows as well as presenting new episodes. In March 2010, If You
Love This Planet will launch a whole new season of programs. Here is
Dr. Caldicott’s January 5, 2009 interview with David T. Suzuki, Ph.D, co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation, is an award-winning geneticist, environmentalist and broadcaster. He has hosted the Canadian television show, The Nature of Things, which airs in 50 countries, since 1979. He is well known in Canada and Australia, but not in the United States.

Dr. Suzuki has received consistently high acclaim for his 30 years of award-winning work in broadcasting, explaining the complexities of science in a compelling, easily understood way. In this fascinating interview with
Dr. Caldicott, he talks about the relationship between human beings and planet earth, and urges policy makers and members of society to become more scientifically literate so we can make informed decisions and leave a safer and healthier environment to future generations.

Dr. Suzuki and Dr. Caldicott cover many topics, including the preposterous plans to build four nuclear reactors on an earthquake fault in Canada to extract tar-sand oil as a source of energy for California; the mental barriers which prevent leaders and the public from taking action on global warming (skeptics said Denmark could get only 2% of its energy from wind, but they are now up to 19.7% and on the road to 50%); deforestation and the urgent need to preserve all old-growth forests to reduce global warming; and the many exciting breakthroughs and new technologies that more forward-thinking countries like Germany are introducing to become sustainable. Science, Dr. Suzuki stresses, is the most powerful force affecting our future.

Dr. Suzuki relates how corporate think tanks began to proselytize the public to worship at the altar of consumption in the middle of the 20th Century, which has led to a notion that the world has infinite resources. To survive, humanity must use its unique gift of foresight and planning for the future for saving the planet, not more growth, development and consumption. He recommends listeners watch a speech on environmentalism given by his daughter, Severn Suzuki, in 1992, when she was 12.

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This week and through February 2010, we are replaying some of our most popular shows as well as presenting new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will launch a whole new season of programs. Here is Dr. Caldicott’s interview with Australian author and wildlife conservationist Sally Henderson, first aired July 27, 2009. Henderson is an Australian whose passion is conserving endangered African wildlife - particularly elephants. In 1990 she joined the elephant research project in Zimbabwe, which inspired her memoir Silent Footsteps, published by Pan Macmillan in 2007. She has traveled extensively throughout Africa, studying many aspects of conservation and a diverse array of African cultures. Henderson’s new book is Ivory Moon, a memoir set in Namibia (also published by Pan Macmillan). In this deeply moving interview, Henderson shares with Dr. Caldicott her many powerful experiences being around elephants, lions, leopards and other animals in Africa, as she worked to save them and learned to understand them.

Dr. Caldicott asks Henderson how she first became interested in visiting Africa, and Henderson recounts how her rewarding childhood experiences surrounded by Australian animals inspired her lifelong interest in wildlife conservation. Henderson speaks about her many close-up encounters with African elephants, including the terrifying time when an elephant saved her life. She tells Dr. Caldicott about the many ways elephants communicate, sometimes telepathically, and their great intelligence and sensitivity.

Elephants as well as rhinos are now endangered. Henderson talks about the poaching of the rhino population for products used in Asia and elsewhere. Poachers kill many elephants, and Henderson has aided efforts to keep them in protected areas, and to educate Africans to save the elephants, at least until old age. Elephant populations have fallen drastically from their original millions to endangered levels today. Read the April 9 Scientific American article Are Elephant Populations Stable These Days?

Henderson vividly describes her experiences in Namibia, more of a pristine wilderness than other parts of Africa. Dr. Caldicott says that Namibia is a major source of uranium, used to make nuclear weapons, and diamonds. Over the course of the program, Henderson also imparts her electrifying experiences with big African cats on several trips and longer stays. She provides many insights into wild feline behavior, including the surprising difference between the leopard and other cats such as lions.

Dr. Caldicott and Henderson also touch on the quality of life for poor Africans, and the hardships and disease they often face. Henderson lauds the work
Bill and Melissa Gates are doing through their foundation in the area of malaria prevention, on
a continent where the vast majority of people cannot afford anti-malarial medications because of the greed of pharmaceutical companies (who would rather market and profit from drugs for depression and low libido, available
to affluent people). The hunting-and-killing mentality of sport hunters is another topic of this episode. Henderson and Dr. Caldicott agree about the peculiarity of hunters who boast about slaughtering wild animals. They concur that humans are the worst predators on the planet. Erich Fromm’s book The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness inquires into why some men enjoy violence, including hunting animals.

After the formal conversation with Henderson ends, there is a three-minute music break, after which Dr. Caldicott comes back on the air to describe her experience attending a conference that included Robert Mugabe, the murderous president of Zimbabwe. During the dialogue with Henderson,
Dr. Caldicott had mentioned encountering Mugabe in the context of whether or not African leaders care about endangered animals.

For more information about saving African wildlife, visit the websites of Save the Elephants, World Wildlife Fund, The African Wildlife Foundation, Save the Rhino and Wildlife Direct. Also visit the web pages of PETA’s Save Wild Elephants campaign and actress Tippi Hedren’s Shambala Reserve, which saves big cats which were abused as illegal exotic pets.
Read the articles African Safaris - Elephants Must Be Saved From Extinction, Extinction Crisis Emerges for World Mammals: One in Four Species at Serious Risk, Will Central Africa’s Forest Wildlife Be Eaten into Extinction?, Elephants Slaughtered to Feed Soldiers in Zimbabwe, Satellite’s-Eye View of an Africa Despoiled [35-image slide show], and The Saddest Show on Earth, about the terrible plight of elephants in circuses.

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Starting this week and through February 2010, we will replay some of our most popular shows as well as presenting new episodes. In March 2010, If You Love This Planet will launch a whole new season of programs. Here again is
Dr. Caldicott’s riveting discussion about the dangers of cell phones. Since this program aired October 5, there have been new reports on the health threat posed by cell phones. A joint U.S.-Korean team reviewed 13 past studies and published their results in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in mid-October. This meta-analysis found that 10 or more years of cell phone usage causes a 20-25% increase in tumors. The forthcoming Interphone study by the World Health Organization, some late-October news articles state, may also indicate higher brain cancer risks from using cell phones. Read Long-term use of mobile phones ‘may be linked to cancer’.

If you’ve ever wondered how the body is affected by cell phone radiation, you won’t want to miss this show. Dr. Vini Gautam Khurana is a senior staff specialist neurosurgeon at the Canberra Hospital in Australia, and Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the Australian National University Medical School. Dr. Khurana has exhaustively studied the medical research on electromagnetic radiation from cell phones. After graduating with medical and research degrees in Australia in 1995, Dr. Khurana moved to the USA for advanced training at the world renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He returned to Australia after ten years of specialist training. Dr. Khurana has received 17 national and international awards, and has written over 35 peer-reviewed articles as well as two books: Brain Surgery, and The Brain Aneurysm. See his webpage about cell phone dangers which includes his report Mobile Phones and Brain Tumors – A Public Health Concern. As background for this show, read the Independent/UK article, Mobile Phones ‘More Dangerous Than Smoking.’

Billions of people now use cell phones worldwide, Dr. Caldicott says near the start of the program. She starts off the interview by asking Dr. Khurana how he became interested in studying the medical effects of cell phone usage and electromagnetic radiation, also known as electromagnetic fields (EMF).
Dr. Khurana explains why the death of doctor and professor Chris O’Brien, a surgeon and close friend of Dr. Khurana’s, provided one impetus for his studies of cell phone hazards.

Dr. Khurana’s study of existing reports on cell phones and cell phone masts, and their electromagnetic radiation was followed by a peer-reviewed publication, Cell phones and brain tumors: a review including the long-term epidemiologic data. Children’s brains are more vulnerable to cell phone emissions. See this diagram from Spain’s Neuro Diagnostic Research Institute of how much cell phone radiation is absorbed in a child’s brain.
Dr. Khurana mentions the work of Professor Leonard Hardell of Sweden, discussed in the article Mobile phone use ‘raises children’s risk of brain cancer fivefold’. Read his research paper Long-term use of cellular phones and brain tumours: increased risk associated with use for greater than 10 years.

Dr. Khurana explains how the cell phone signal powerfully tracks the user with a constant stream of radiation.
Dr. Khurana then illuminates the truth about plug-in microphones, wired earpieces, and other variable equipment that can or cannot reduce the radiation from cell phones. To reduce, but not block, cell phone radiation, Dr. Khurana recommends an earpiece with an air tube that provides more distance from the user’s head as it transmits the audio. A device that uses this technology is the Blue Tube advanced Aircom2. To learn more about the Blue Tube and have the option to buy one, see “Does a Cell Phone’s Radiation Effect Stop When the Call Ends?” which includes a seven-minute video commentary by osteopathic physician Dr. Joseph Mercola.

Dr. Caldicott asks Dr. Khurana how scientists think that cell phone radiation and EMF can induce cancer. He describes the various types of electromagnetic radiation and where cell phones fit into the spectrum. See a diagram of radiation frequencies. At one point, Dr. Caldicott refers to measuring devices which check the fields of electromagnetic radiation. Some meters also measure cell phones. Check out the Trifield gauss meter from AlphaLab, Inc. This appliance has an electric & magnetic setting to measure EMF, and a radio/microwave setting which can also measure cell phone radiation.

Dr. Khurana mentions a new study on human sperm and cell phone radiation, Mobile Phone Radiation Induces Reactive Oxygen Species Production and DNA Damage in Human Spermatozoa In Vitro. Other topics of this program include where cancers from cell phone use might develop in humans, the drastic increase in brain tumor incidence in the last 10 years, and how children are being affected by mobile phones. Dr. Caldicott is quite shocked to hear that Ireland and England have declared cell phones safe for children.
Dr. Khurana talks about the Bioinitiative Report, in which several scientists weigh in on “A Rationale for a Biologically-based Public Exposure Standard for Electromagnetic Fields (ELF and RF)” and the potential for an epidemic of brain tumors and leukemia.

Another recent study found a very high incidence of brain tumors among offspring of women who work with electric sewing machines, Dr. Khurana says. Read an abstract of Maternal occupational exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields and the risk of brain cancer in the offspring. Dr. Khurana talks about the hazards of laptop computers, before exploring the paradigm shift about understanding the dangers of electromagnetic radiation which might be occurring, noting that the U.S. Senate and European Parliament have both pledged to study the health effects of cell phones. Dr. Khurana provides more safety recommendations throughout the end of the program.

For more information, watch Dr. Khurana’s appearances on Larry King Live and on 60 Minutes on his website’s Media page. Read Heavy Cell Phone Use Linked To Cancer, Study Suggests which mentions the work of Israeli scientist Dr. Siegal Sadetzki. See Dr. Sadetzki’s study Cellular Phone Use and Risk of Benign and Malignant Parotid Gland Tumors—A Nationwide Case-Control Study. See the article Pittsburgh cancer center warns of risk from cell phone use and the related report Tumors and Cell Phone Use: What the Science Says. And read Cellphone use potentially risky for kids, teens: health agency. See the webpage Cell Phones Linked to Brain Cancer which has several television segments and diagrams showing how cell phone radiation damages the body. Read 14 die of cancer in seven years living next to phone mast with highest radiation levels in UK. For general information on EMF hazards, visit the website of Microwave News.

Wireless internet (Wi-Fi) is considered by some to be another major health risk. Read Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi and WiFi Radiation - Is WiFi Technology Bad For Your Health?. Other forms of life may be strongly affected by electromagnetic radiation and cell phone transmissions. Read Electronic smog ‘is disrupting nature on a massive scale’: New study blames mobile phone masts and power lines for collapse of bee colonies and decline in sparrows. Check out the Q-link pendant developed by university scientists and extensively studied which helps protect the body from the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation. Cell phone manufacture requires the use of the mineral coltan, and mining coltan is creating terrible conflicts in Africa. Read We’re All Raping the Congo, One Cell Phone Call at a Time and Can You Hear Congo Now? Cell Phones, Conflict Minerals, and the Worst Sexual Violence in the World. Read the October 22 article Stop Texting, to Save Lives in Africa. Also see the article The Radiation Poisoning Of America for more about cell phone tower and microwave transmissions.