Steve Taylor is the press secretary for Global Justice Ecology Project and the host of the podcast Breaking Green. He is the recipient of the Leo and Kay Drey Award for Leadership from the Coalition for the Environment for his work as co-founder of the Times Beach Action Group.
Steve Taylor is the press secretary for Global Justice Ecology Project and the host of the podcast Breaking Green. Beginning his environmental work in the 1990s opposing clearcutting in Shawnee National Forest, Taylor was awarded the Leo and Kay Drey Award for Leadership from the Coalition for the Environment for his work as co-founder of the Times Beach Action Group.
In this interview, Steve Taylor talks to Nnimmo Bassey, a Nigerian architect and award-winning environmentalist, author, and poet, about the history of exploitation of the African continent, and the failure of the international community to recognize the climate debt owed to the Global South.
An excerpt from a January 25th, 2023 interview on Breaking Green with host Steve Taylor. Video of U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer.
Breakinggreen.buzzsprout.com
It is 90 seconds to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. In large part due to developments in the war in Ukraine, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of the infamous timepiece forward.
Just weeks earlier the Department of Energy announced the first reported controlled fusion reaction that was touted as a breakthrough for national defense and the future of clean energy.
Given the history of that lab, there is reason for skepticism.
In this episode of Breaking Green we will talk with Dr. Helen Caldicott.
Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1938, Dr Caldicott received her medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School in 1961. She founded the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1975 and subsequently was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and on the staff of the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Mass., until 1980 when she resigned to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war.
In 1971, Dr Caldicott played a major role in Australia’s opposition to French atmospheric nuclear testing in the Pacific; in 1975 she worked with the Australian trade unions to educate their members about the medical dangers of the nuclear fuel cycle, with particular reference to uranium mining.
While living in the United States from 1977 to 1986, she played a major role in re-invigorating as President, Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. On trips abroad she helped start similar medical organizations in many other countries. The international umbrella group (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.
Dr Caldicott has received many prizes and awards for her work, including the Lannan Foundation’s 2003 Prize for Cultural Freedom and twenty one honorary doctoral degrees. She was personally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Linus Pauling – himself a Nobel Laureate. The Smithsonian has named Dr Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century.
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This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.
Dr. Helen Caldicott is concerned that we are the closest we have ever been to nuclear annihilation and that citizens are no longer informed as to the incomprehensible destruction and suffering that it would bring.
As oil dependent nations seek to shore up their supply while the war between Russia and Ukraine rages, some African Nations seem eager to provide more access to fossil fuels. This was evidenced during the September minister’s meeting in Egypt, when representatives from various African nations called on world leaders to “avoid approaches that encourage abrupt disinvestments from fossil fuels.”
But many in Africa have been fighting for justice in the face of abuses by companies that damage the environment and make the continent second only to Russia when it comes to the hazardous practice of gas flaring.
In this episode of Breaking Green we talk with renowned Nigerian architect , author and activist Nnimmo Bassey, about what it really means for the health of Africans and the planet when it comes to the exploitation of the so-called resource rich continent. We will also discuss the history of colonialism’s impact on Africa and how the 27th Conference of Parties, to be held this November in Egypt, is likely to promote false solutions to climate change and refuse to deal in a meaningful way with the climate debt owed to the global south in general, and Africa in particular.
Nnimmo Bassey is a Nigerian architect, environmental activist, author and poet, who chaired Friends of the Earth International from 2008 through 2012 and was executive director of Environmental Rights Action for two decades. His is director of the ecological think-tank, Health of Mother Earth as well as a board member of Global Justice Ecology Project. Nnimmo Bassey was a co-recipient of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” In 2012 he received the Rafto Human Rights Award. He was also one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment in 2009.
Don’t miss this episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.
This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.
On February 23, a train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, causing an environmental disaster of historic proportions. It was a Norfolk Southern train, which was over a mile long and carrying hazardous materials, including over 100,000 gallons of vinyl chloride. Three days later, a so called control to burn through toxic materials from the crash into the atmosphere that continues to affect communities for miles around. Since the derailment, many in East Palestine and neighboring communities have been struggling with challenges resulting from the chemical contamination as well as a lack of transparency from federal and state agencies. On this episode of Breaking green, we will talk with Amanda Kiger, the director of River Valley Organizing a citizens based community organization that works for a safer, cleaner and more community oriented environment in the Appalachian river valley, a region long challenged by environmental degradation. Amanda Kiger, has been featured prominently in the media, as she her organization and members of the East Palestine community seek a meaningful response from state and federal agencies that seem more concerned with the financial well being of Northfolk Southern man the residents.
Antiwar and environmental activist Dr. Helen Caldicott warns that policymakers who understate the danger of nuclear weapons don’t have the public’s best interest at heart.