Moir's Environmental Dialogues, Ocean River Shields of Achilles

25. Biomass Power~Bad for Rivers, Forests and Carbon Emissions

Mary S Booth, PhD ecologist tells of how in 2007 wood-burning electric biomass generators were found to be an answer, good for the nation’s carbon-footprint as well as a cleaner energy source than fossil fuels. Massachusetts sought to add 135 megawatts of electricity.  Into the permitting process went three new biomass plants, in Springfield, Russell (Westfield River), and Greenfield (Deerfield River).  The Ocean River Institute got involved defending the taking and warming of water in a coldstream salmon river, the Westfield. Meanwhile, Mary researched the impacts on Massachusetts forests, carbon emissions overall, and air quality. Biomass generators work at best with 24% efficiency meaning one needs to burn 4 cords of wood to get 1 cord of wood energy.  Informed by good science, the state is less gung-ho for burning construction debris.  Last month the state did “a turn around” to no longer view wood-burning biomass generators as a green solution for climate change concerns.

24. New England Climate Summer Riders

Rob talks with four New England Climate Summer Riders, who recently rode into Somerville. Margaret Fetzer-Rogers, Sara Finkle, Yingying Chen, and Bliss Parsons are all college students, coming from different schools, who share a common desire to combat the climate crisis. Together, they have dedicated nine weeks this summer to inspire and inform communities as to how one can reduce carbon footprints and use of fossil fuels. Following a week orientation program in Wilmot NH, Margaret, Sara, Yingying and Bliss were given a lift to 25 miles north of their first community, North Andover MA. Astonishingly, what four bicycles were carrying filled an SUV and a trailer.  The riders have ridden from North Andover to Beverly, to Somerville often staying in churches. They set up at farmers markets, attend church dinners and meet with municipal leaders. The three teams of riders will converge on Boston, August 8.  By then riders will be even more fit, well versed with grassroots organizing, locally informed and hopefully breathing air a little less carbon polluted because people along the ride took actions that made a difference. For them, if not for your health, don't drive when you can ride a bike.   To follow their adventures visit www.newenglandclimatesummer.org

23. Oil Moratorium, Clean Energy, National Ocean Policy!

The growing oil spill disaster in the Gulf - now the largest spill in U.S. history - is at the top of everyone's concerns these days. It's wreaking immediate and lasting damage on wildlife and the economy, environment and human health. This episode of Achilles Shields, Rob speaks with Mike Dunmeyer of Ocean Champions about turning this disaster into some positive actions. They discuss the actions being taken by Obama to halt new ocean drilling and get strong climate legislation. Mike and Rob talk about the various clean energy solutions out there to fight the climate crisis and grow a green economy. The first step is to reinstate the national moratorium on all new ocean drilling. Mike also talks about how setting carbon emission reductions and establishing a cap and trade system will help industry and spur new jobs. Last, Mike talks about what's being done in Washington by Ocean Champions to turn this drilling travesty into a positive by getting a national ocean policy established. Rob shares the work the Ocean River Institute and its network of ecostewards are doing to call for clean energy, no new drilling, and a National Ocean Policy.

22. Sturgeon, Ocean Wanderers in the Danube River and the East China Sea 

Discover the life of sturgeon around the world. Hear how people are working to better know and save these ancient long-lived fish. Dr Boyd Kynard returns as my guest with tales of sturgeon and other migratory fish beyond New England.  Dr Kynard built and operates the Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Amherst, MA. He has developed remarkable telemetry tracking devices that are documenting and unlocking the secrets of fish behaviors.  Scientists from around the world come to the Amherst lab to learn the research tools for migratory fish back home. Known as the migratory fish missionary, Dr Kynard transported tons of research equipment aboard a ship that traveled through the Bosporus Straits, over the Black Sea to the Danube River where seven species of sturgeon dwell. He established a fish laboratory in Romania and also established a migratory fish lab in China, downriver of the Three Gorges Dam.

21. Ocean Wanderers: MA Sturgeon and Lampreys

Sturgeons and lampreys are truly ocean river dwellers. My understanding and awe of anadromous fish was forever altered by lamprey nest building behavior and what the behavior of two sturgeon told Dr Boyd Kynard last month. Many years ago, he discovered in his neighborhood the only Massachusetts tributary river of the Connecticut River watershed that is not dammed, the Fort River.  We talk about an amazing fish, the lamprey, which stops feeding in Long Island Sound to travel to the Pelham Hills transporting carbon and ocean chemicals including boron to endow ecosystems far from the sea.  Discover the many ways lamprey leave an environment better off than found. Don’t miss Dr. Kynard’s remarkable research findings of Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon populations in the CT and Merrimack Rivers. Both sturgeon and lamprey are resilient, long-lived fish, ocean wanderers with life histories and survival strategies very different from the well-studied salmon.

20. Saving the British Virgin Islands, Precious Salt Ponds & Flamingos

Marine biologist, Lianna Jarecki, PhD, takes Rob into a threatened British Virgin Island salt pond. Lianna explains the complex biology from blue-green algal mats to mangroves with clapper rails, to black-necked stilts and flamingos atop the salt pond food pyramid. In the second half, Noni Georges of the Virgin Islands Environmental Council (VIEC) tells a local version of the David and Goliath story. The largest developers in the world spent millions planning to develop with government permission to disregard all environmental regulations. This would destroy the most pristine portions of the Tortola, Beef Island. Islanders were outraged with the potential loss of mangrove shores, salt ponds and most of all, the Fisheries Protected Area. They took action. A senior paper by a young law student Noni Georges began the legal process. The court case became a first for the Caribbean, where Islanders stood up to developers. Noni explains how VIEC won the case and how this is only the beginning with the developers appealing the decision.

19. Global Ocean in Crisis, Deep Descents in Troubled Ecosystems

Alanna Mitchell will take us on a dive 3,000 feet into a far Tortuga
sinkhole where no one has gone before to discover new life forms, new chemical compounds, and new insights into how it all comes together on the ocean planet. Alanna Mitchell is journalist who travels with ocean scientists and marine biologists to discover how we live with oceans and depend on marine life. With her clear-eyed immediacy she writes in the style of Rachel Carson, yet more personable. We care that carbonic acid is increasing in seawater with increasing carbon in the atmosphere. During the last century and a half of human activity ocean water acidity has increased by 30%. What does it mean for you and me when calcareous sea critters start to fizzle in rising seas? Alanna Mitchell shares her experiences with us and will read of her dive from her book, Seasick: Ocean Change and the Extinction of Life on Earth.

18. Climate Crisis and the River CAKEwalker

Grab a paddle and pull. Lara Hansen, PhD, will talk of how we can no longer disregard the inevitability of drastic climate change. So many decisive factors are affected by these changes that we are in crisis, a climate crisis that affects everything we do. Time to do something about it. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is a big piece of the solution puzzle. Yet, we also have to figure out how to deal with all of the effects of the climate crisis—from sea level rise to warming waters, less oxygen, to spread of disease. Climate crisis must factor into the decisions we make about natural resource management, human community development and how we live in changing watersheds. Dr. Lara Hansen of EcoAdapt will draw on ecosystem experiences and insights to offer proven tools for ecostewards and environmental guardians.

17. Solving a Big Problem in the Ocean

If you care about the oceans why you should care about fishing? Amanda Leland and Tom Lalley of the Environmental Defense Fund will tell. Much has been said about what is wrong with overfishing and how management efforts frequently fail. Drawing on personal experiences with sea urchins and a tale of red snapper, as well as years of research and listening to fishermen, we’ll learn how complex and unpredictable ocean wildlife and ecosystems actually are. Discover how this ocean environmental and economic problem can be solved, and what you can do to help. The Environmental Defense Fund offers us educational resources and a tool box for recovering groundfish that include cod, fluke, and haddock, pelagics including tuna and swordfish, and schooling fish: herring, sardine and mackerel. By sharing the catch with less waste and more profit, fish and fishing communities both survive.

16. How to create a national ocean policy (without getting all wet)

 President Obama’s Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force is calling for “an America whose stewardship ensures that the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes are healthy and resilient, safe and productive, and understood and treasured.” How do we achieve that vision and how do we get there from here are the topics of discussion for this episode of Moir’s Environmental Dialogues, Ocean River Shields of Achilles. My guests, Sarah Chasis and Alison Chase, are from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Ms. Chasis is director of NRDC’s ocean initiative and Ms. Chase is an ocean policy analyst. This episode's Capital Hill update from Dr. David Wilmot, Co-founder and President of Ocean Champions, is on who is doing what for ocean policy. Listen in to hear what you can do to bring about an Executive Order for healthy seas.

15. Seaweed Rebels Rally and Wear Blue for President Obama’s National Ocean Policy

Sherman’s Lagoon syndicated cartoonist Jim Toomey and Blue Frontier Campaign president David Helvarg talk about the goals and accomplishments of the National Ocean Policy Task Force.  What began with Sherman Lagoon’s Claudia the crab and Finley the fish wearing blue shirts in a comic strip grew to a national movement involving thousands of people for ocean conservation with individuals wearing blue before the Honolulu state house, east to the Cambridge MA Community Center and New Orleans north to Anchorage.

 

David Helvarg’s “Seaweed Rebellion, Blue Frontier Campaign” has brought people together, provided unity and focus while enhancing awareness of the grassroots (seaweed holdfasts) ocean movement. Mike Dunmeyer, Ocean Champions Executive Director, will join in with us for a wild, wet discussion of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force’s work.

 

View the national Wear Blue video where Jim Toomey speaks first standing before the White House. Mike Dunmyer steps up after Jim to speak of "a huge first step to align government agencies."

Moir’s Environmental Dialogues, Ocean River Shields of Achilles is available for streaming, MP3 file, or free on iTunes. 

14. Battling Assaults to the Gulf of Maine Ecosystem with a Responsive Systemic Initiative

Peter Alexander of the Gulf of Maine Restoration and Conservation
Initiative talks about a new effort to tackle the growing
impacts of human activities in the Gulf of Maine. The beautiful Gulf
of Maine appears to many to be a relatively pristine ecosystem.
Beneath the waves and along the shores serious problems have been building up over time—and not just the well-publicized crash of native fisheries. Abandoned fishing gear, invasive species, municipal waste, pollution from agricultural and residential runoff, and loss of fish and wildlife habitat are causing enormous harm, and until now there has been no comprehensive plan to deal with these and other problems. Discover what locals are doing and interested citizens can do to make a difference.

Also, Senator Barbara Boxer on putting a price on carbon and Representative Brian Baird advancing bipartisan harmful algal
bloom, red tide, and hypoxia (dead zone) legislation.

13. Climate Change: Local Practices and International Environmental Policies Addressing Global Warming, Turning Towards 350 ppm Carbon

Discover how to reduce our carbon footprint, reverse rates of greenhouse gas build-up while creating green jobs and healthier environments with Professor William Moomaw, Senior Director, Tufts Institute of the Environment; Co-Director, Global Development and Environment Institute; and Lead author, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2003.

12. Sizzle, Global Warming Mockumentary & Shifting Baselines with Randy Olson

Randy Olson, marine biologist and filmmaker talks about “shifting baselines” for ecosystems and his newest film Sizzle to premier in NYC on Oct 23. Shifting baselines are the chronic, slow changes to an ecosystem or place that one is not apt to notice. It is more difficult to appreciate and understand what has been lost in a degraded system if a baseline of what is there had not been established in the past. Sizzle, the documentary, addresses climate change without the graphs, but with disagreeable scientists and with sophisticated humor. Randy Olson explains the distinctions and advantages to “mockumentaries” versus documentaries, where media respects the better understandings that listeners have in order to get the parody.www.sizzlethemovie.com Dave Wilmot tells of marking-up a bill in DC for tackling harmful algal blooms and ocean hypoxia. www.oceanchampions.org Chukchi Sea hairy blob days are numbered. 

11. Roz Savage Paddling the Pacific Ocean, Rowing towards a Greener World

Roz Savage rowed 3,158 miles solo across the Pacific Ocean, west from Hawaii, to arrive at the low coral atoll islands of Kiribati, Eastern Pacific on Sept 9, 2009. 104 days at sea. 203 total days alone at sea for her Pacific crossing with 99 days from CA to Hawaii in 2008. Roz uses her ocean rowing adventures to help inspire action for healthier oceans and cleaner skies, the challenges of climate change to stop detrimental effects of lethal overheating and turn toxic tides. Hear Roz describe close encounters with a whale shark, large seabirds and flying squid. Learn how one person lived alone at sea while networked via the Internet with many. Be inspired by a woman who quietly did the never-been-done, over 1.3 million oar strokes west from California with two oars, gloves, sliding seat, sunscreen and bean sprouts.