If You Love This Planet, Dr. Helen Caldicott

Update on Obama’s energy and climate plan; Australian wildfires and global warming

 

Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D.

Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D.


In the first part of this episode,
Dr. Caldicott speaks with Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., who provides an
update about President Obama’s energy and climate program, and the funding for renewable energy in the recently passed economic stimulus package. Dr. Makhijani is the President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER). His publication Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy has been downloaded
from the www.ieer.org website a million times, and is having an impact on state governments and politicians around the country.

Dr. Makhijani explores the possibilities for greater energy efficiency offered by smart meters and other intelligent approaches to saving and storing electricity, President Obama’s plan to reduce carbon emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by the middle of the century, and the dangerous pitfalls of “cap-and-trade” programs that do virtually nothing to stop global warming. IEER is now studying how a state such as Utah can move to 100% renewable electricity, and writing model legislation for how other states can follow this path. More information about IEER’s trendsetting work can be found at www.ieer.org and www.carbonfreenuclearfree.org.

Paul Collins

Paul Collins

In part two of the program, Dr. Caldicott chats with Paul Collins, an Australian historian, writer and broadcaster whose book Burn: The Epic Story of Wildfire in Australia (2006) gives a popular history of bushfire in Australia. In the wake of the devastating fires that swept through the southern Australian state of Victoria in February 2009, he explains the behavior of fire and the new conditions we now face due to the consequences of global warming and climate change. He provides some historical background about how British settlers began to upset the equilibrium in the country by intensely destroying natural vegetation. Moving to the present, the February fires have just added millions of tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. Dr. Caldicott and Collins agree that politicians almost never make connections between the stronger wildfires and extreme weather the world is seeing now, and global warming, because of their limited knowledge of science. Collins mentions the work of American geologian, Thomas Berry, and the need for people to become reconnected to the earth if we are to survive. In an earlier program from 2008, Dr. Caldicott interviewed Collins about religion’s role in saving the planet.

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