Episodes

Ed Begley, Jr. joins us to discuss an entire day of Earth Day coverage of Hollywood’s efforts to Go Green. Interviews will be covered on www.BiteSize TV.com/live, and will bring together actors, authors, scientists, business innovators and other celebrities who are out front in the green movement, along with the leading experts on a wide range of environmental issues—from climate change and protecting our oceans to green fashion and sustainable farming. Ed will also discuss the Earth Day launch ...

Today we’re joined by Lois Gibbs, environmental health advocate made famous by her leadership during the Love Canal crisis in upstate New York, and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mark Kitchell (Berkeley in the Sixties) to discuss his new documentary, A Fierce Green Fire, which spans 50 years of grassroots and global activism from the 1960s-2009 and connects the major causes of environmentalism: from the conservation movement and Sierra Club halting dams in the Grand Canyon to battling toxic w...

The Green Schools National Network held its annual conference in Sacramento, CA in late March 2014, and I had the chance to interview some of the leaders on the GSNN Advisory Board. On todays’ episode, you’ll hear from Stephen Ritz, the teacher behind the Green Bronx Machine (http://greenbronxmachine.org) who gained national notoriety after his TED talk (http://youtu.be/RF6qTlgtHU0). Michael Ferraro, CEO of Growums (http://growums.com/), was one of the conference sponsors. You’ll hear from Bill ...

What will it take to teach the next generation to live sustainably? Can environmental education enhance academic achievement in math, science and social studies? These are among the many important questions that the Green Schools National Network (GSNN) addresses by connecting education professionals from across the U.S. Today we’ll be joined by GSNN CEO, Jim McGrath, and COO, Dr. Jenny Seydel, to discuss the latest trends in the green schools movement, and some best practices for communities th...

With a million more of us every 4½ days on a planet that's not getting any bigger, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. Alan Weisman traveled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were the probably the most important questions on Earth-and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth's ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? And,...

Climate change isn’t bad news for everyone. As Arctic ice melts at historically rapid rates, some people brace for rising sea levels, and some brace for new opportunities to drill for oil in waters that were once too icy for rigs. Recently, several Greenpeace activists were captured by Russian forces and charged with piracy after protesting one such drill site in the Arctic. Today, Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA’s executive director, joins Go Green Radio to discuss his organization’s concerns abou...

Just a few weeks ago, 17 foundations with assets of about $2 billion agreed to divest their portfolios of coal, oil and gas, and reinvest in the clean energy economy. This adds a major tailwind to the movement that is up and running on 400 college campuses nationwide. Major institutions in San Francisco, including the city itself, have agreed to divest completely. Some of these big names include The Compton Foundation, The Sierra Club Foundation, The San Francisco State University Foundation and...

“Western man has been using the sun’s rays for useful purposes since the days of ancient China, as this comprehensive, carefully researched, clearly written history of solar architecture and technology makes abundantly clear,” says The New York Times about John Perlin’s book, Let it Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy. Let it Shine presents the step-by-step development of solar architecture and technology and pertinent energy policies. By providing the background for today’s vibrant solar...

Toxic chemicals used to wash coal were stored on the banks of a river less than 2 miles from where water entered the public water system for 300,000 people in nine counties of West Virginia. When 7,500 gallons of the chemicals spilled into the river, people not only got sick, but they could not use their water for anything but flushing toilets for several days. No drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, washing hands, no public water for a week. We need to stop and think about the chemicals...

What will it take to teach the next generation to live sustainably? Can environmental education enhance academic achievement in math, science and social studies? These are among the many important questions that the Green Schools National Network (GSNN) addresses by connecting education professionals from across the U.S. Today we’ll be joined by GSNN CEO, Jim McGrath, and COO, Dr. Jenny Seydel, to discuss the latest trends in the green schools movement, and some best practices for communities th...

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton made protecting wild African elephants the centerpiece of the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative, in part because the elephants are facing extinction in a decade given current poaching rates, but also because their tusks are financing terrorism. Today we are joined by bestselling author and war correspondent, Mike Bond, to discuss the real world threat that is the subject of his new fiction novel, The Last Savanna. The book is based on his participation in military operat...

Greenpeace Senior Scientist, Dr. David Santillo, joins us to discuss geoengineering – what it is and why it is gaining attention in the U.S. Congress, the U.N. and countries around the world. With 15 years’ experience in organic analytical chemistry and development of policies for environmental protection, Dr. Santillo will share his insights on climate intervention technologies.

Toxic chemicals used to wash coal were stored on the banks of a river less than 2 miles from where water entered the public water system for 300,000 people in nine counties of West Virginia. When 7,500 gallons of the chemicals spilled into the river, people not only got sick, but they could not use their water for anything but flushing toilets for several days. No drinking, cooking, bathing, washing clothes, washing hands, no public water for a week. We need to stop and think about the chemicals...

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton made protecting wild African elephants the centerpiece of the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative, in part because the elephants are facing extinction in a decade given current poaching rates, but also because their tusks are financing terrorism. Today we are joined by bestselling author and war correspondent, Mike Bond, to discuss the real world threat that is the subject of his new fiction novel, The Last Savanna. The book is based on his participation in military operat...

Education is a dynamic institution. Every few years classrooms are introduced to new technologies and reforms that alter the learning experience in many ways. Throughout all these changes, however, two things have remained the same: first, human beings are completely dependent on natural systems, and second, human beings are capable of rendering natural systems incapable of supporting life. To what extent are we teaching students the necessary skills to preserve the natural systems on which they...

When a large environmental disaster occurs – like the BP oil spill in the Gulf – we take notice of the impact that energy extraction has on wildlife. But we tend to think of this impact only when a catastrophic event causes egregious pollution. The fact is that wildlife and wilderness areas are under constant pressure due to the expanding footprint of energy exploration, which is taking up more and more acreage every day. In this episode we’ll talk with Tom Butler, Editorial Projects Director fo...

“How much economic risk does the United States face from the impacts of climate change?” The Risky Business initiative will help us find out. Risky Business is a joint initiative of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Office of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and Next Generation. The Risky Business Initiative includes two core components: • An independent risk assessment to reveal the likely financial risk the United States faces from unmitigated climate change. • An engagement effort - led by...

Are there upsides to fracking? Are consumer fears warranted? What are oil and gas companies doing to manage the risks involved? At the top of the hour, we’ll explore this topic with Karen Moreau, Executive Director of the New York State Petroleum Council, who will discuss hydraulic fracturing from an industry perspective. Later in the episode, we’ll be joined by Richard Heinberg, author of Snake Oil: How Fracking’s False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future.

It comes as news to no one that the energy industry is the most profitable on Earth. Based on their rise to prominence in the 20th Century, the annual earnings of the top five oil companies alone (ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Conoco Philips, and Chevron) are now measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. In his new book, Following the Money, Craig Shields presents a set of interviews with subject matter experts who discuss the effects that economics and financial power have on the course of the ...

Geoengineering is a generic term for a multitude of technologies and theories aimed at changing the Earth’s climate. There are two basic categories into which all geoengineering concepts fall: solar radiation management and CO2 removal. Numerous governments around the world are looking to scientists who study geoengineering for possible “quick fix” solutions to global warming, which include spraying chemicals into the clouds above us and changing the chemical composition of the ocean. While the ...

When a large environmental disaster occurs – like the BP oil spill in the Gulf – we take notice of the impact that energy extraction has on wildlife. But we tend to think of this impact only when a catastrophic event causes egregious pollution. The fact is that wildlife and wilderness areas are under constant pressure due to the expanding footprint of energy exploration, which is taking up more and more acreage every day. In this episode we’ll talk with Tom Butler, Editorial Projects Director fo...

“How much economic risk does the United States face from the impacts of climate change?” The Risky Business initiative will help us find out. Risky Business is a joint initiative of Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Office of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, and Next Generation. The Risky Business Initiative includes two core components: • An independent risk assessment to reveal the likely financial risk the United States faces from unmitigated climate change. • An engagement effort - led by...

In 2007, coal-fired power plants generated 50% of all the electricity in the U.S.; it’s now down to 37% thanks to cheap natural gas prices. About two-thirds of the coal used in America comes from surface mining, including mountaintop removal (MTR). But because the communities around these operations are small, rural, and less likely to receive media attention, most Americans have no idea about the human health problems caused by this form of mining, all in the name of cheap energy. Teri Blanton ...

The rapid spread of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has temporarily boosted US natural gas and oil production . . . and sparked a massive environmental backlash in communities across the country. The fossil fuel industry is trying to sell fracking as the biggest energy development of the century, with slick promises of American energy independence and benefits to local economies. Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s foremost energy educators, casts a critical eye on the oil-industry hype that ...