Category Archives: Uncategorized

Because we all contribute
to global warming, be co-dependent no more:

1st Step: Admit
you are powerless over your addiction to using energy
and that your high energy use has become unmanageable, and then
change 10 light bulbs in your house to
compact florescent bulbs. Taking this first step
saves 1,795 lbs of carbon dioxide per year! 

2nd Step: Come to believe that a power strip turned off can
restore you to sanity. Turn off your power strip when not in use and
save 300-500 lbs of CO2 output per year!

3rd Step: Make a decision to turn your water heater down to 120
degrees, and turn your will over to the care of the planet, as you understand
it. This step saves 550 lbs of CO2 per year!

4th Step: Take a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourself
and then wash out the waste in cold-water laundry. Save 1,533 lbs of
CO2 per year!

5th step: Admit to yourself and to
a human witness the exact nature of
your true driving needs (how often do you drive the
entire soccer team around?), and drive a more fuel efficient
car (increase of 3 mpg) will save 2,400 lbs of CO2 emissions per year,
and save getting hosed at the pumps!

6th Step: Take an oath that you are entirely ready to begin composting
25% of your garbage. Save 1,040 lbs a year!

7th Step: Humbly wrap your heater in an insulation jacket. Save
1,000 lbs!

8th Step: Make a list of all your errands; become willing to
combine them on the same trip, and drive 10 miles less a week. Save
500 lbs per year!

9th Step: Make amends to the planet and turn your thermostat
down 2 degrees in the winter and up 2 degrees in the summer. Save 2,000
lbs of CO2!

10th Step: Take personal inventory of your appliances and unplug
them when they are not in use. Save 300 lbs a year!

11th Step: Seek through prayer and meditation to
lighten your footprint on the planet and clean the coils in your refrigerator
twice a year. Saves 651 bs of CO2 per year!

12th Step: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of
these steps, resolve to take this message to other energy addicts, and
to practice these principles in all
your affairs. And if you get really motivated, switch to solar power.
It’ll save 5,749 lbs of CO2 output a year! 

This might be EcoTalk’s last hurrah as a daily show, but we’ll be damned if we won’t go out with yet another jam-packed hour of news that will inform the future that us optimists are determined to see through.
If the mainstream media were a little more concerned with concrete plans for our energy future than the cost of somebody’s haircut, presidential outside shot Governor Bill Richardson (NM) might have a reasonable shot at the White House this upcoming silly season. David Sandretti of the League of Conservation Voters joins Betsy to outline the big guy’s plan to combat climate change. LISTEN (10 min)

Shawnee Hoover of Exxpose Exxon comments on reports that say that despite their ongoing insistence that they’ve severed ties with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and renounced smearing the science of climate change, Exxon "is still funding more than $2 million to the majority of climate skeptic groups" closely linked to CEI and their ilk.  LISTEN (8 min)

The saddest part of this is that Exxon and other deniers know that they
will someday have to accept and address the challenges of climate
change, yet they cynically continue to sow doubt so as to squeeze a few
more bucks out of the fossil fuel era. If we were to act now, we could
minimize the impacts of climate change on our daily lifestyles. But
Exxon’s denial creates a self-fulfilling prophecy: the longer we wait,
the more likely it is that our lifestyles will be compromised
significantly, as Exxon currently warns.

Richard Heinberg performs his role as EcoTalk’s final (for now) guest with aplomb, discussing Exxon’s latest shenanigans as well as his books The Party’s Over and The Oil Depletion Protocol.

And finally, Betsy sees us out with a brand new Madonna tune, released as part of the LiveEarth series of concerts to combat climate change: "Hey You." Download it here! LISTEN (12 min)

Paul Ehrlich has been both authoritative and controversial for forty years, so that fact that to this day his  still somewhat taboo advocacy of population control and his other work are cited in newspaper editorials no longer shocks him: "I am an outsider from the point of view of the media. I am an insider from the point of view of science. Scientists don’t care what Jerry Falwell, or Limbaugh, or Coulter say. They care about what other scientists say." Join us for a special interview that is as compelling as it is freewheeling.
PART ONE (7 min)  PART TWO (12 min)