Interview with Majora Carter

It was an honour to speak with Majora Carter last month following her speech at the PowerShift climate change event in Ottawa. Click the audio player above to hear my interview for CKUT radio.

Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic and social degradation. Hence her motto: “Green the ghetto!”

In 2001, Majora Carter founded a vanguard non-profit environmental justice solutions corp: Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx); serving as Executive Director until mid 2008. With a focus on goals over ideology, Majora Carter then built one of the nation’s first and most successful urban green-collar job training and placement systems within 2 years of founding the corp. With her inspired ideas and fierce persistence, Carter managed to bring the South Bronx its first open-waterfront park in 60 years, Hunts Point Riverside Park. Then she scored $1.25 million in federal funds for a greenway along the South Bronx waterfront, bringing the neighborhood open space, pedestrian and bike paths, and space for mixed-use economic development. In 2006, Majora was awarded the MacArthur “genius” grant.

Her success is no surprise to anyone who’s seen her speak; Carter exudes confidence, energy and an intensely emotional delivery. Working from the belief that no one should have to move out of their neighborhood to live in a better one, Carter decided in 2008 to broaden her horizons in 2008 by founding the consultancy, The Majora Carter Group LLC – aiming to bring the same values, leadership, and talent to cities, organizations, businesses and regions across the nation.

Truly an inspirational individual, Carter shows how one person can make a significant impact in their community and she gives us a glimpse of what a more socially and environmentally just world could look like.

“We could not fail to be inspired by Majora Carter’s efforts to bring green space for exercise to the South Bronx. We need more ideas like these to bring solutions to minority communities.” Time

Interview with Wade Davis

I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to talk with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis when he was in Montreal recently to deliver the fourth of his five Massey lectures, the most prestigious and anticipated Canadian lecture series of the year. These lectures, which are being broadcast from Nov. 2-6 for the CBC Radio program Ideas, are based on his new book ‘The Wayfinders: Why ancient wisdom matters in the modern world‘.

Over the years, I have followed the writings and various exploits of Wade Davis with considerable interest and some envy. A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Wade Davis travels the globe to live alongside indigenous people, and document their cultural practices in books, photographs, and film. He has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.”

Born in Montreal, raised in B.C. and educated at Harvard, Wade Davis is perhaps the most articulate and influential western advocate for the world’s indigenous cultures. His writing evokes a passionate concern over the rate at which cultures and languages are disappearing — 50 percent of the world’s 7,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children. He argues that language isn’t just a collection of vocabulary and grammatical rules. In fact, “Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.”

He is the bestselling author of several books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, Light at the Edge of the World, and The Clouded Leopard. He is an award-winning anthropologist, ethnobotanist, filmmaker and photographer, and his writing and photographs have been widely published.

In this interview I did for CKUT radio, Wade explains why we should be gravely concerned about the disappearance of indigenous languages and cultures around the world, what we can learn from ancient wisdom and how cultural diversity can provide us with alternative models and solutions in confronting some of the most serious challenges facing humanity today.

CLICK HERE to download the interview (To download, right click and select “save link as…”)

And on to Copenhagen…

Interview with Elizabeth May on the International Day of Action on Climate Change

And so it’s come and gone. After 18 months of planning and preparation, over 4000 events took place in over 180 countries all over the world this past weekend to push the number 350 into the global consciousness. Why? Because many scientists (most prominently James Hansen of NASA) now feel that 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere should be the upper limit in order to avert potentially catastrophic climate change. As we’re already at 387 ppm and still can’t seem to agree on how (or whether) to reduce emissions, this is no small task. Nonetheless, organizers of and participants in the Oct. 24 international day of action on climate change are hoping that the events around the world this past weekend will lead to a groundswell of public opinion that will help push leaders towards a new, stronger international climate treaty at negotiations in Copenhagen this coming December.

So will it work? This is the question I am asking myself having returned from the ‘Fill the Hill’ event on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, has been making the point that advocates for action on climate change constitute a “movement without a movement” in the sense that there has never really been any coordinated mass action on the part of citizens around the world.

I have to admit to being a little disappointed to have seen only about 1000 people turn out on Parliament Hill in Ottawa for what was billed for months as an event that would “fill the Hill’. If the possibility of a catastrophic climate crisis isn’t enough to spur Canadians into action, one wonders what is? On the other hand, perhaps the impacts just seem too far off in the distance, too uncertain, too slow to become manifest. Or maybe it was the rain on Saturday that kept people away.

Whatever the case, I couldn’t help but be reminded of an article from last fall by Eric Pooley called ‘How Much Would You Pay to Save the Planet?’ The author argues that a deadly meteor hurtling toward the earth would surely result in a herculean and coordinated effort to avert catastrophe, regardless of the economic cost. Yet in the case of climate change, no such mobilization has occurred despite the best efforts of scientists to warn of the severe to catastrophic consequences of inaction.

So where will we go from here and just how will the world manage to forge a new agreement in Copenhagen in December? For some thoughts on this, I caught up with Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada, who was at the rally on Parliament Hill. Click on the audio player to hear the interview I did with her for CKUT radio.

October 24 is the International Day of Action on Climate Change

Click here to read my interview with Bill McKibben for the journal Alternatives, which was recently published on their web site. Bill talks about his organization 350.org and the huge international day of action on climate change, which is happening on October 24 all over the world, including a massive rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

In Review: Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy

Read my review of ‘Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy‘ in the Aug 2009 issue of Alternatives Journal. Here is an excerpt:

Perhaps it is the economic crisis. Maybe it is climate change, soaring extinction rates or the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor. Or then again, it could simply be the nagging sense among more and more people that the human project has somehow gone awry. Whatever the case, in recent years, we have witnessed an explosion of popular interest in books that question, even excoriate, the most fundamental assumptions of our current, growth-at-all-costs economic system. …

Interview with Peter Brown

Click the audio player to hear my interview with Peter G. Brown who is the co-author, with Geoffrey Garver, of the recently published book ‘Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy.’ Peter Brown is a professor in the departments of geography, natural resource sciences and the McGill School of the Environment. He is also the author of ‘The Commonwealth of Life’ and ‘Building the Public Trust’.

In the interview, he discusses why he believes it is wrong human relationships that are at the heart of the problems that modern societies face today. The concept of right relationship is something like sustainability but it goes much deeper and compels us to reconsider the place of humanity in the world.

Energy policy and hydroelectric development in Quebec

Click the audio player to hear an interview with Fran Bristow of Alliance Romaine, an organization that is coordinating a 6-week marathon campaign to raise awareness about planned hydroelectric development on the Romaine River in Quebec. She discusses the campaign as well as energy policy in Quebec more generally, and the considerable drawbacks to hydro electric power, which is often touted, incorrectly, as a carbon-free energy solution to climate change.

For more info on Alliance Romaine, click here.

Time to bury the GDP

At long last it seems that calls to overhaul or even abandon completely the Gross Domestic Product as a measure of national economic well-being  are reaching a critical mass. Although many pioneers in the field (notably Herman Daly) have long pointed out the serious flaws inherent in equating GDP with genuine well-being, his and other like-minded voices have, until recently, been mere cries in the wilderness, largely ignored, even ridiculed by mainstream economists.

This is all beginning to change. On August 9, the New York Times published an op-ed article by Eric Zencey in which he states that the GDP is “a deeply foolish indicator of how the economy is doing. It ought to join buggy whips and VCRs on the dust-heap of history.” Another article in the Times published last September when the economy was in full nose-dive wondered why many Americans were feeling so anxious when the gross domestic product was still going up. None other than Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen noted recently that “We may be in the early stages in the United States of recognizing that the gross domestic product is very misleading and something must be done to get better measures of well-being.”

Interview with Daniel Barbezat

Click the audio player to hear an interview with Prof. Daniel Barbezat of Amherst College (MA). He discusses his groundbreaking economics course called ‘Consumption and the Pursuit of Happiness’, which questions traditional notions in economic theory about the relationship between consumption, wealth and satisfaction.

Daniel Barbezat received the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History at the 2004 annual meeting of the Economic History Association.

From the course description:

In the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson breaks with John Locke’s emphasis on “life, liberty and property” and instead asserts that the basic rights (“inalienable”) of humans are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  In this bold move, Jefferson placed “happiness” at the core of the political and personal concern.  In this seminar, we will examine how we define, measure, and attempt to generate and maintain happiness.  We will undertake exercises that will allow students to become mindful of their own well-being and will allow them to have direct experiences of the issues we address.  Students will gain practice in the articulation of their ideas and internal states through speaking, writing and self-awareness.

Interview with the director of The Cove

A scene from Louie Psihoyos’ “The Cove”

There are many documentaries angry about the human destruction of the planetary peace. This is one of the very best — a certain Oscar nominee.

- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

Click on the audio player to hear my recent interview with Louis Psihoyos, director of The Cove.

The Cove tells the story of how a team of activists and filmmakers embarked on a mission to penetrate a hidden cove in Japan where thousands of dolphins are slaughtered every year. In the interview, Louis discusses how and why he made the film, why the dolphin hunt continues in a shroud of secrecy and what can be done about it.

Louie Psihoyos has been widely regarded as one of the top photographers in the world. He was hired out of college to shoot for National Geographic and created images for the magazine for 18 years. An ardent diver and dive photographer, he feels compelled to show the world the decline of our planet’s crucial resource, water.

He has been on contract for Fortune Magazine and shot hundreds of covers for other magazines including Smithsonian, Discover, GEO, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Rock and Ice. His work has also been seen on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Television and the History Channel.

With Jim Clark, Louis created The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), in 2005. The non-profit organization provides an exclusive lens for the public and media to observe the beauty as well as the destruction of the oceans, while motivating change.

With his first film, The Cove, he has touched many with his unflinching view of a dark subject. The film has won Audience Awards at Sundance, Newport Beach and Toronto’s HotDocs.

Click here  to download the interview. (To download, right click and select “save link as…” or “save target as”)