Podcasts about Right Livelihood Award

Award for solutions to challenges facing the world

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Right Livelihood Award

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Best podcasts about Right Livelihood Award

Latest podcast episodes about Right Livelihood Award

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman
Bill McKibben on fighting for change under the new Trump administration

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2025 49:26


Donald Trump launched his second term as president this week by enacting executive orders authorizing mass deportations, curtailing the rights of LGBTQ+ people, withdrawing from climate accords and pardoning his supporters who assaulted Capitol police officers. Flanked by an assortment of the richest men on Earth, Trump's inauguration vividly symbolized the dawn of a new age of oligarchs.This has many people — including the nearly two-thirds of Vermonters who voted against Trump — in despair.Bill McKibben has long found hope and opportunity in the face of daunting challenges. As one of America's leading climate activists, McKibben freely admits that he has lost more fights than he has won, as evidenced by the inexorably rising global temperatures and the proliferation of climate-fueled disasters, most recently in Los Angeles, where wildfires have burned over 40,000 acres and destroyed over 15,000 structures .But McKibben keeps writing, organizing, and launching movements. He founded the global grassroots climate campaign 350.org that helped to stop major oil pipelines. And he launched a fossil fuel divestment movement that has resulted in more than 1,500 institutions with $40 trillion in assets committing to divesting from fossil fuels.Four years ago, McKibben launched Third Act, a political movement of people over 60 to use their “unparalleled generational power to safeguard our climate and democracy.” The organization is now 100,000 volunteers strong.“It feels to me as if a kind of arc of American history that began with the election of FDR has come to an end,” said McKibben. “The idea that America was a group project that we were working on together trying to make things better, always imperfectly, often dangerously for other parts of the world, but nonetheless a consistent effort to build a country that that worked, that feels like it's over and we're now in some new era where we do not understand what the goals are, what the rules are, what the ideas are, what the etiquette is. I mean, watching Elon Musk throw up a Nazi salute was a pretty breathtaking moment.”McKibben said that currently immigration is one of his biggest concerns. “The thing that we should be saddest and scared about is what immigrants to this country must be feeling right now. The amount of fear there must be in people's homes every night when they go to bed, just that quanta of apprehension and fright, must be off the charts,” he said. “I don't know quite how we're going to be able to come to the defense of people, but I hope that we can figure out some ways to do it in the longer term.”McKibben added that his other big concern is “the single deepest problem facing the planet, and that's its rapidly escalating temperature.”Trump declared in his inaugural speech that he was declaring an “energy emergency.” “Of course, that's absurd,” said McKibben. “We have no shortage of energy. We're producing more oil and gas than we've ever produced before. The real problem, the real urgency, is that the people who control that oil and gas are worried that we might use less of it someday.”“We're in an emergency," he continued, "but it's not the one that he's describing. The emergency that we're in, obviously, is the one that drove temperatures higher in 2024 than they've ever been before, and the one that set our second largest city on fire.”McKibben said that Trump and his oil industry backers hope “that they can get another 10 or 20 years out of their business model even at the cost of breaking the planet, because that's clearly going to be the cost.”McKibben noted that the fossil fuel industry is losing a race against the burgeoning renewable energy sector, in which China I leading the way with cheap solar panels and electric vehicles. “Every day on this Earth people are putting up solar panels equivalent to a nuclear power plant. ... We've roughly doubled the pace at which we're putting renewables up, and we need to roughly triple it in order to get back on a kind of Paris (climate accord) pathway. But it's a remarkable, remarkable change.”McKibben observed that even in a hostile political environment “we also need to just celebrate where we are, the fact that we do live at a moment when we could make this decisive turn towards the sun and towards the wind, where we could reconnect with the natural world as the source of our power.”McKibben is the author of some 20 books, including “The End of Nature,” which was the first book to warn the general public about the climate crisis. He writes regularly for the New Yorker at his Substack, The Crucial Years. His latest book is a memoir, “The Flag, The Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.” McKibben is the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award and the Right Livelihood Award, known as “the alternative Nobel.” He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College.“I don't think that we're actually going to be able in the short term to defy Trump's energy regime. I don't think we can prevent them from doing lots of drilling. I think the place where his ideas are weak and vulnerable is precisely in the fact that now we know how to make the same product — energy — just cleaner and cheaper and more beautifully. And if we can hammer on that, then maybe we'll get somewhere despite it all.”

Info 3
Inflation auf tiefstem Stand seit 2021

Info 3

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2024 13:46


Die Teuerung in der Schweiz ist im September weiter zurückgegangen: von 1,1 auf noch 0,8 Prozent. Damit liegt sie so tief wie zuletzt im Juli 2021. Welche Auswirkungen hat das auf unseren Alltag? Weitere Themen: Aktivisten und Organisationen aus dem Westjordanland, Mosambik, Grossbritannien und den Philippinen werden in diesem Jahr mit dem Alternativen Nobelpreis – dem Right Livelihood Award – geehrt. Wer sind die diesjährigen Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger? An hunderten ehemaligen Standorten der Schweizer Armee gibt es Altlasten. In vielen Fällen handelt es sich um ehemalige Schiessplätze, wo etwa verschossene Munition die Böden belastet. Die Säuberung dieser Standorte ist eine Jahrhundertaufgabe, die Sanierung oft komplex.

Info 3
US-Hafenstreik wohl international spürbar

Info 3

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2024 13:31


Der grösste Streik der Hafenmitarbeiter seit fast 50 Jahren droht die US-Wirtschaft ins Chaos zu stürzen. Aber auch die internationalen Lieferketten werden durch den Streik beeinträchtigt. Was heisst das für die Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten in der Schweiz? Weitere Themen: Der Palästinenser Issa Amro aus Hebron im Westjordanland hat sich ganz dem gewaltfreien Widerstand verschrieben. Dafür wurde er nun mit dem Alternativen Nobelpreis – dem Right Livelihood Award – ausgezeichnet. Doch wie genau geht «gewaltloser Widerstand» im besetzten Westjordanland? Nach Angaben der UNO werden 95 Prozent der ukrainischen Kriegsgefangenen in russischer Haft gefoltert. Diejenigen, die zurückkehren, schildern Grauenhaftes. Angehörige der Gefangenen werfen dem Internationalen Komitee vom Roten Kreuz in diesem Zusammenhang mangelnde Tätigkeit vor.

Rendez-vous
Alternativer Nobelpreis: Aktivisten aus dem Westjordanland geehrt

Rendez-vous

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 3, 2024 30:29


Aktivisten und Organisationen aus dem Westjordanland, Mosambik, Grossbritannien und den Philippinen werden in diesem Jahr mit dem Alternativen Nobelpreis – dem Right Livelihood Award – geehrt. Wer sind die diesjährigen Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger? Weitere Themen: - Inflation auf tiefstem Stand seit 2021 - Holt Kamala Harris North Carolina? - Die Armee säubert ihre verseuchten Standorte - Der Kanton Aargau und seine Männerregierung - Tagesgespräch: ETH-Rektor Günther Dissertori zum Cern

Nature Evolutionaries
Cultivating Resilience: A Soil Dialogue with Hunter Lovins

Nature Evolutionaries

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2024 59:49


Join us for the fifth session of our Soil Conversations series, featuring a compelling discussion with Hunter Lovins, renowned environmentalist, author, and champion of sustainable development. This session promises to delve into the intricate relationships between soil health, climate resilience, and sustainable agriculture. Lovins will share her wealth of knowledge on how nurturing our soil can lead to a regenerative future, offering insights drawn from her extensive experience and pioneering work in the field.In this conversation, we will explore practical strategies for improving soil health and enhancing ecosystem services. Lovins will discuss the role of innovative agricultural practices, such as agroforestry and holistic management, in building resilient food systems. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how healthy soils contribute to carbon sequestration, water retention, and biodiversity, and how these benefits can be realized on both local and global scales.This session is an invaluable opportunity to hear from one of the leading voices in sustainability and to engage in a dialogue about the future of our soils. Hunter Lovins' unique perspective, grounded in decades of activism and research, will provide a rich context for understanding the critical importance of soil stewardship in addressing the pressing environmental challenges of our time.L. Hunter Lovins is President of Natural Capitalism Solutions. NCS helps companies, communities and countries implement more regenerative practices profitably.  A professor of sustainable business management at Fordham University, Hunter teaches entrepreneuring and coaches social enterprises around the world. A Managing Partner of NOW Partners, she is also a board member of Aquion and several non-profits. Hunter has worked in energy, regenerative agriculture, climate policy, sustainable development and resilience for 55 years.A consultant to industries including International Finance Corporation, Unilever, Walmart, the United Nations and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as sustainability champions Interface, Patagonia and Clif Bar, Hunter has briefed heads of state, the UN, and the US Congress, leaders of the numerous local governments, the Pentagon, and officials in 30 countries. Author of 17 books – including the recently released A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life, which won a Nautilus Award – Hunter has won dozens of awards, including the European Sustainability Pioneer award and the Right Livelihood Award. Time Magazine recognized her as a Millennium Hero for the Planet, and Newsweek called her the Green Business Icon. Support the show

SWR Umweltnews
Jakob von Uexküll, der Stifter des Alternativen Nobelpreises, wird 80 Jahre alt

SWR Umweltnews

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2024 3:24


Offiziell heißt der Preis "Right Livelihood Award" und zeichnet Menschen oder Organisationen für herausragendes Engagement im Umweltschutz und für soziale Gerechtigkeit aus (Autorin: Sofie Donges)

The Future Is Beautiful with Amisha Ghadiali
Vandana Shiva on Biodiversity Farming, Seed Libraries and Universal Law - E211

The Future Is Beautiful with Amisha Ghadiali

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2024 87:43


How do we reclaim health for our food systems? In this special episode entitled ‘Earthly Delights' Amisha talks with Vandana Shiva on her infamous farm in India. Vandana is a world-renowned environmental thinker, activist, feminist, philosopher of science, writer and science policy advocate. She is the founder of Navdanya Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (India) and President of Navdanya International. In 1982 she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), an independent research institute that addresses the most significant problems of ecology of our times, and two years later, Navdanya (‘nine seeds') the movement in defense of biodiversity and small farmers. Vandana is recipient of many awards, including in 1993 the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize', and named among the top five “Most Important People in Asia” by AsiaWeek in 2001, she is is a prolific writer and author of numerous books and serves on the board of the International Forum on Globalisation, and member of the executive committee of the World Future Council.  We hear from Chander Shaker who is one of the core team at the farm, as well as a multitude of participants of the Earth Democracy seminars with Vandana.  We explore :: bio and culturally diverse food systems and farming :: seed libraries :: universal laws :: soil health and its impacts on our health Links from this episode and more at allthatweare.org    

The Essentially Erin Podcast
S1E5 - A Conversation with Renowned Midwife Ina May Gaskin

The Essentially Erin Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 29, 2024 110:31


Renowned Midwife, Ina May Gaskin, joins Erin to share her extensive knowledge and experiences in childbirth. In this informative episode, Ina May shares about the history of obstetrics and breech birth, the deliveries of her children, The Farm Midwifery Center, her books, and shoulder dystocia.  Connect with Ina: Facebook Books Connect with me: Instagram Website About Ina May: A certified professional midwife who has attended more than 1,200 births, Ina May Gaskin is known as the “mother of authentic midwifery.” Gaskin joined the Peace Corps after college and taught English in Malaysia for two years before returning to the United States to obtain her master's degree. During the birth of her first child in the 1960's, Gaskin experienced the terrible practice of having her child pulled into the world with forceps. The incident fueled her determination to find a saner way to give birth. A few years later, during a five-month long speaking tour with her husband, Stephen Gaskin, and more than two hundred young idealists, she witnessed her first birth, one of many that would occur during the trip. Because many of the women were without health insurance or money to pay for a doctor, Gaskin often assisted in births by default, eventually aided by the instruction and support of a sympathetic obstetrician. In 1971, the group purchased a large tract of land in rural Tennessee and established a cooperative community. Gaskin located a doctor willing to serve as a mentor and medical liaison, and the Farm Midwifery Center was born. During a stay in Guatemala in 1976, Gaskin learned a technique for preventing and resolving shoulder dystocia, a condition that occurs during birth when the baby's head is born, but the shoulders are stuck in the birth canal. After using the method with great success, she began to teach and publish articles about the method. Now referred to as the Gaskin maneuver, it is the first obstetrical procedure to be named after a midwife. Gaskin has lectured in numerous countries and is the author of several books, including Spiritual Midwifery (1975), the first text written by a midwife published in the United States. In 2011, Gaskin received the Right Livelihood Award, an honor bestowed each year by the Swedish Parliament; the award is often referred to as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”

Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life
2024:04.24 - Nnimmo Bassey - Welcome, Wild Times: Conversation with Resilience Leaders

Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2024 77:46


These are wild times to be alive. From the local to the global, we are facing complex, interlocked crises. Yet, around the world people are responding in creative, dynamic, grounded ways to adapt and emerge. Omega Resilience Awards, a new program of Commonweal, was created to gather a community of people interested in resilient strategies. Collectively, we strengthen generative connections and share narratives of resilience. What will emerge? What will coalesce? We do not know. There are no clear maps, roads, or nautical charts to guide us in these times, but we know we have to move forward and create new narrative byways as we step into the unknown. Join The New School co-host Michael Lerner in conversation with three of the co-creators of this dynamic global resilience community. In this first conversation, Michael speaks with Nnimmo Bassey from Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Nigeria. Join us for part 2 and part 3 of the series in May and June, when Michael speaks with Manisha Gupta from StartUp! in India, and Anabella Museri and Sofia Nemenmann from Asociación Argentina de Abogados/as Ambientalistas/Colectivo de Acción por la Justicia Ecosocial in Argentina. Nnimmo Bassey Nnimmo is the director of the ecological think-tank Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and member of the steering committee of Oilwatch International. He was chair of Friends of the Earth International (2008-2012) and was named Time magazine's Hero of the Environment in 2009. He is 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 and in 2014, Nigeria's national honour as Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) in recognition of his environmental activism. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of York, United Kingdom in July 2019. Bassey is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects and has authored books on the environment, architecture and poetry. His books include We Thought it Was Oil, But It was Blood (Kraft Books, 2002); I will Not Dance to Your Beat (Kraft Books, 2011); To Cook a Continent – Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa (Pambazuka Press, 2012) and Oil Politics – Echoes of Ecological War (Daraja Press, 2016). He is fondly called The Living Ancestor by young activists. Find out more about The New School at Commonweal on our website: thenewschool@commonweal.org. And like/follow our Soundcloud channel for more great podcasts.

Russia on the Record
Chernobyl's Legacy in Modern Russia

Russia on the Record

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2024 23:20


April 26 marks 38 years since Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster. In this episode, we discuss the legacy of this tragedy on modern-day Russia, how nuclear energy is used in Russia today, and its underexamined role as a Russian foreign policy tool.Joining us is Vladimir Slivyak, co-chair of the Russian Environmental Group Eco-Defense and winner of the 2021 Right Livelihood Award.Find us at: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/ https://www.facebook.com/MoscowTimes/ https://twitter.com/moscowtimes https://t.me/moscowtimes_en https://www.instagram.com/themoscowtimes/ 

The Pakistan Experience
22 of my Family members were killed in Gaza but I Shall Not Hate - Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish - #TPE 350

The Pakistan Experience

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2024 57:57


Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish comes on for a remarkable episode of The Pakistan Experience on Israel, Palestine and hatred. Dr. Izzeldin talks about Israel killing his daughters, his niece, and 22 of his family members but still vowing not to let hatred consume him. We discuss Gaza, Resilience, Belief, Faith, the Nakbah, the Cruelty of the World, Hatred, Loss and the Current Situation in Gaza. Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, an esteemed Palestinian-Canadian physician and humanitarian, was born in the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza on August 15, 1958. He is renowned for his unwavering commitment to peace, education, and women's empowerment, particularly following the tragic loss of three daughters during Israel's Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. Abuelaish studied medicine at Cairo University before moving to Canada in 1987 to pursue further training as a gynecologist. In addition to being a respected medical professional, he has dedicated himself to promoting cross-border understanding between Palestinians and Israelis through various initiatives such as the Daughters for Life Foundation (DFLF), which provides scholarships to young female students from conflict zones around the world. His work with DFLF led him to be named one of Time Magazine's “100 Most Influential People” in 2010. The foundation also inspired his bestselling memoir, “I Shall Not Hate,” published in 2010, which chronicles his personal journey towards forgiveness after losing his family members. In recognition of his efforts, Abuelaish received numerous awards, including the Order of Ontario, the United Nations Prize in Field Support, and the Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize. His advocacy for peace and justice continues to inspire people worldwide, making him a prominent figure in global discussions about conflict resolution and reconciliation. The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience To support the channel: Jazzcash/Easypaisa - 0325 -2982912 Patreon.com/thepakistanexperience And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89 Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:30 Gratitude, Strength and Belief in God 8:50 The experience and memory of Nakbah 14:00 Losing my daughters and losing faith in humanity 26:00 Gaza Strip, Never Again and the Cruelty of the World 38:30 Hatred and choosing not to hate 47:30 Current Situation in Gaza and Accountability of the World

Oxford Policy Pod
Oleksandra Matviichuk: Ukrainian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights defender

Oxford Policy Pod

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2024 33:45


In this episode, MPP students Erik Kucherenko and Kseniia Velychko talk to Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Ukrainian human rights lawyer and civil rights defender, whose organisation Centre for Civil Liberties (CCL) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. In an incredibly emotional and sincere episode, Erik, Kseniia, and Oleksandra discuss the motivation behind Oleksandra and the CCL's fight for human rights, the importance of documenting war crimes, the ongoing Russian full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the role of civil society in bringing about political and diplomatic change, and why justice is so important today.***Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights defender who works on issues in Ukraine and the OSCE region. At present she heads the human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties, and also coordinates the work of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS. The activities of the Center for Civil Liberties are aimed at protecting human rights and establishing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. The organisation is developing legislative changes, exercises public oversight over law enforcement agencies and judiciary, conducts educational activities for young people and implements international solidarity programs.After the beginning of new armed aggression in February 2022, Matviichuk together with other partners created the ‘Tribunal for Putin' initiative in order to document international crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in all regions of Ukraine which became the targets of attacks of the Russian Federation.In 2016 she received the Democracy Defender Award for ‘Exclusive Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights' from missions to the OSCE. In 2017 she became the first woman to participate in the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program of Stanford University. In 2022 Matviichuk was awarded with the Right Livelihood Award and recognised as one of the 25th influential women in the world by the Financial Times. The same year Center for Civil Liberties, which Matviichuk is head of, received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking Out of Place
What Does the Recent ICJ Finding with Regard to Israel's War in Gaza Mean? A Discussion with Noura Erakat, Michael Lynk, and Maung Zarni

Speaking Out of Place

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2024 70:08


Today, on Speaking Out of Place, we discuss the recent International Court of Justice ruling on the Gaza genocide case, which found that Israel is plausibly engaging in genocide in Gaza.We discuss the case and its implications, as well as the colonial backdrop of the international law behind it, with former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine Michael Link, Palestinian human rights attorney, scholar, activist, and teacher Noura Erakat, and Burmese scholar and dissident in exile, Maung Zarni. We also address the recent decision of a number of countries to defund the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, which was established by the United Nations in 1949. Finally, we talk about what global civil society can and must do to effect change where international law cannot.​​Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Associate Professor at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.  She is a Co-Editor of Jadaliyya. Her book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019)  narrates the Palestinian struggle for freedom as told through the relationship between international law and politics during five critical junctures between 1917-2017 to better understand the emancipatory potential of law and to consider possible horizons for the future. Erakat's research interests include human rights law, humanitarian law, refugee law, national security law, social justice, critical race theory, and  the Palestinian-Israel conflict. Until his retirement in December 2022, Michael Lynk taught labor law, constitutional law and international and Canadian human rights law at the Faculty of Law, Western University in London, Ontario for more than 20 years.From 2016 to 2022, he served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967. He has authored and edited several books, including most recently Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine: Working Through the United Nations (Clarity Press, 2022), co-authored with Richard Falk and John Dugard, and International Law and the Middle East Conflict (Routledge, 2011), co-edited with Susan Akram, Michael Dumper and Iain Scobbie.Maung Zarni is a research fellow at the (Genocide) Documentation Center - Cambodia, co-founder of FORSEA.com, a progressive activist and intellectual platform for Southeast Asian activists, and Burmese coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition. He has 30-years of engagement in activism, scholarship, politics, and media.  An adviser to the Genocide Watch, Zarni served as a member of the Panel of Judges in the Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Sri Lanka ('s) genocidal crimes against Eelam Tamil (2013) and was the initiator of the Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Myanmar (2017).His most recent monographs are “The Enemy of the State” speaks: Irreverent Essays and Interviews” (2019) and “Essays on Myanmar's Genocide of Rohingyas” (2018). With Uzbek-British filmmaker and war-correspondent Shahida Tulaganov, Zarni co-produced the 50-minutes educational film "Auschwitz: Lessons Never Learned" (2020) ( https://vimeo.com/469954700 ) and served as a leading expert in "EXILED: A film by Shahida Tulaganov (2017)", a historical documentary about the Rohingya genocide (https://exiledthefilm.com/) For his scholarship and activism, Zarni was recognized with the Cultivation of Harmony Award by the Parliament of the World's Religions in 2015 and shortlisted for Sweden's Right Livelihood Award in 2018.  

The Creative Process Podcast
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

The Creative Process Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

One Planet Podcast
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

One Planet Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

Books & Writers · The Creative Process
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

Books & Writers · The Creative Process

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

Social Justice & Activism · The Creative Process
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

Social Justice & Activism · The Creative Process

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

Sustainability, Climate Change, Politics, Circular Economy & Environmental Solutions · One Planet Podcast
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

Sustainability, Climate Change, Politics, Circular Economy & Environmental Solutions · One Planet Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

Education · The Creative Process
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

Education · The Creative Process

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 27, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

Feminism · Women’s Stories · The Creative Process
Speaking Out of Place: BILL McKIBBEN, Co-Founder of 350.org, Founder Third Act & CAROLINE LEVINE, Author of The Activist Humanist

Feminism · Women’s Stories · The Creative Process

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2023 36:06


In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007)."Viewed one way, we live in a very hopeful moment. Thanks to in large part the work of university scientists and engineers, we now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun. That is to say, we could run our Earth on energy from heaven instead of hell, and we could do it fast. The fast is the hard part here. The only difference between all the examples of the long victories of social justice activism that we're in now is that this one is a time-limited problem. If we don't solve it fast, then no one's got a plan for how you refreeze the Arctic once you've melted it. And so we have to move very quickly. Our systems are not designed to move quickly. It's the easiest thing in the world to slow down and delay change, which is all that the fossil fuel industry at this point is trying to do, and that means that it's time for maximum effort from all of us. The story to tell is that the planet is outside its comfort zone, so we need to be outside ours."https://billmckibben.comhttps://350.orghttps://thirdact.orghttps://english.cornell.edu/caroline-levinehttps://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691250588/the-activist-humanisthttps://tiaa-divest.orgwww.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.comhttps://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20

Speaking Out of Place
The Moral Imperative to Divest: Conversation with Bill McKibben and Caroline Levine

Speaking Out of Place

Play Episode Play 42 sec Highlight Listen Later Nov 22, 2023 35:43


Today we speak with legendary climate activist Bill McKibben and scholar Caroline Levine. McKibben relates his long struggle to get companies to divest from fossil fuels and for the world in general to act immediately to seriously and substantially address this existential crisis. Levine tells of her efforts to get the giant pension fund, TIAA-CREF, to divest. She also talks about her new book, The Activist Humanist, and its relation to both her teaching and her activism.Caroline Levine has spent her career asking how and why the humanities and the arts matter, especially in democratic societies. She argues for an understanding of forms and structures as essential both to understanding links between art and society and to the challenge of taking meaningful political action. She is the author of four books. The most recent, The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press 2023), grows out of the theoretical work of Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (2015, winner of the James Russell Lowell Prize from the MLA, and named one of Flavorwire's “10 Must-Read Academic Books of 2015”). Levine has also published The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003, winner of the Perkins Prize for the best book in narrative studies) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007).Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.  

il posto delle parole
Stefano Davide Bettera "Parole che cambiano il mondo" Vandana Shiva

il posto delle parole

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2023 24:47


Stefano Davide Bettera"Parole che cambiano il mondo"Vandana ShivaUn'economia di cura, una democrazia della TerraEditrice Missionaria Italianawww.emi.it«La colonizzazione delle nostre menti per adattarle alla macchina per fare soldi avviene modificando i significati delle parole in modo che non siano più radicate nella nostra realtà e nelle economie relai, ma si inseriscano nell'architettura dell'arricchimento»Ci sono parole che orientano il mondo e parole che lo confondono, portandoci sulla strada sbagliata.Di quanta menzogna o quanta verità sanno farsi carico termini come “economia”, “ambiente”, “ecologia”, “finanza”, “guerra”, “pace”, “lavoro”?Vandana Shiva opera un lavoro di demistificazione del linguaggio, per restituire alle parole la loro funzione primaria e guidarci così ad una maggiore comprensione delle dinamiche che governano il mondo.Il libro, pubblicato in anteprima mondiale, è pensato per un pubblico vasto e interessato ai temi del cambiamento climatico, della sostenibilità e di uno stile di vita sempre più attento al Pianeta.Vandana Shiva è tra le ambientaliste più famose al mondo per le sue battaglie contro gli Ogm e la difesa dell'ambiente. Ha ricevuto molti riconoscimenti internazionali, come il Right Livelihood Award (1993), considerato il «Premio Nobel per la Pace alternativo», e il Thomas Merton Award (2011). Nel 1987 ha lanciato Navdanya, progetto che punta a contrastare la tendenza alla monocoltura promossa dalle multinazionali.Stefano Davide Bettera è scrittore, filosofo e giornalista, nonché presidente dell'Unione Buddhista Europea. Combina il suo lavoro di autore con la docenza e l'attività divulgativa. Tra le sue recenti pubblicazioni, Il Buddha era una persona concreta (2019) e L'abbraccio del mondo (2021), La pornografia dell'essere (2023)IL POSTO DELLE PAROLEascoltare fa pensarewww.ilpostodelleparole.itQuesto show fa parte del network Spreaker Prime. Se sei interessato a fare pubblicità in questo podcast, contattaci su https://www.spreaker.com/show/1487855/advertisement

FORward Radio program archives
Access Hour | Grassroots Radio Conference | Amy Goodman | Keynote | 10-25-23

FORward Radio program archives

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2023 73:18


Forward Radio was well represented at the 2023 Grassroots Radio Conference in Charleston, WV Oct. 20-22 (https://www.2023grassrootsradioconference.com/) On this week's Access Hour, we begin the roll-out of some of the highlights from the conference, this week featuring the keynote address given by Amy Goodman on the morning of October 21st. Amy Goodman co-founded Democracy Now! as an alternative to what she and others perceived as an insular and ineffective mainstream press that was beholden to corporate sponsors. Goodman anchors the Democracy Now! daily one-hour broadcast and is also the program's executive producer. Under her leadership, the show became the fastest growing independent news source in the United States, boasting syndication on more than 750 radio and television stations by the first decade of the 21st century. Goodman's investigative journalism in East Timor and Nigeria earned her the 2008 Right Livelihood Award, an award often referred to as an alternative Nobel Prize, marking the first time a journalist had been so honored. In 2016 her coverage of protests against construction of a pipeline in North Dakota led to a criminal trespass charge, after state prosecutors claimed that she “was not acting as a journalist.” The trespass charge was soon dropped, but Goodman then was accused of rioting. The case was dismissed by a judge.​ She coauthored the best-selling books The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them (2004); Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back (2006); Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008); and Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America (2016).

SWR2 Impuls - Wissen aktuell
Phyllis Omido: Alternativer Nobelpreis für Kampf gegen Bleifabriken

SWR2 Impuls - Wissen aktuell

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2023 3:53


Viele Menschen in Phyllis Omidos Dorf in Kenia wurden krank oder starben an Bleivergiftung – wegen einer Fabrik, in der Autobatterien eingeschmolzen wurden. Die Aktivistin wehrt sich gegen solche Bleifabriken und bekommt dafür jetzt den Right Livelihood Award.

Africalink | Deutsche Welle
AfricaLink on Air -28 September 2023

Africalink | Deutsche Welle

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2023 30:00


Burkina Faso coup attempt +++ Two women activists from Africa and two organizations were presented with this year's Right Livelihood Award +++,Corruption in Guinea under a junta

On Human Rights
Alyn Ware - Peace Educator and Nuclear Disarmament Consultant

On Human Rights

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 25, 2023 31:21


Alyn Ware is a peace educator and nuclear disarmament consultant from New Zealand. In 2009, he received the Right Livelihood Award for his vast efforts to promote peace education and disarmament. The Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” is an international award given annually to honor individuals, organizations, and movements that have made significant contributions to the promotion of social justice, sustainable development, and environmental protection.

KPFA - Letters and Politics
Honoring the Legacy and Memory of Daniel Ellsberg

KPFA - Letters and Politics

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2023 9:17


Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931 – June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers. In January 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. Because of governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering (which were committed by the same people who were later involved in the Watergate Scandal), all charges were dismissed against Mr. Ellsberg in May 1973. Mr. Ellsberg was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He was also known for having formulated an important example in decision theory, the Ellsberg paradox; for his extensive studies on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy; and for voicing support for WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 Olof Palme Prize for his “profound humanism and exceptional moral courage.”     Photo (C): Wikimedia/ Bern Gross.  Daniel Ellsberg, speaking at a press conference in 1972, New York City by Gotfryd, Bernard. The post Honoring the Legacy and Memory of Daniel Ellsberg appeared first on KPFA.

The Real News Podcast
Uganda's draconian new anti-LGBTQ law includes life in prison and the death penalty

The Real News Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2023 42:36


Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/ugandas-draconian-new-anti-lgbtq-law-includes-life-in-prison-and-the-death-penaltyA new law in Uganda broadly criminalizing the LGBTI* community has captured global attention. The law includes provisions against "Aggravated Homosexuality" that criminalize the sexual activity of HIV+ people with life in prison or even the death penalty. Other loosely defined activities such as "abetting homosexuality" and "conspiracy to engage in homosexuality" are also criminalized. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with renowned Ugandan LGBTI activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera to discuss the origins of Uganda's recent turn towards politicized homophobia and transphobia, as well as the consequences of the new law.*LGBTI stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex—this is the preferred acronym used in Uganda.Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera is a founder of the LGBTI movement in Uganda, and the founder of Freedom & Roam Uganda, a prominent human rights organization that addresses discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people. Nabagasera opened Uganda's first gay bar and organized the country's first pride parade. She's also the first LGBTI rights activist to be awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, and additionally received the Right Livelihood Award for his activism in 2015. She currently resides in Massachusetts.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

Flanigan's Eco-Logic
Hunter Lovins on Regenerative Economies and Natural Capitalism

Flanigan's Eco-Logic

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 13, 2023 30:57


In this episode of Flanigan's Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Hunter Lovins, founder and President of Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS). NCS helps companies, communities, and countries implement more regenerative practices profitably.Hunter is a consultant to scores of industries and governments worldwide, and has briefed heads of state and leaders of hundreds of governments. Hunter is also the author of 16 books and hundreds of articles. She has won dozens of awards, including the Right Livelihood Award. Time Magazine recognized her as a Millennium Hero for the Planet, and Newsweek called her the Green Business Icon. Her most recent book, A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life won a Nautilus Award. Her areas of expertise include climate solutions, energy policy, regenerative agriculture, social enterprise, economic development, and sustainability.She and Ted discuss ranching in Colorado, small-holder farming, and the circular economy of the soil. She notes that to feed a growing population, we need to restore soil quality, and ultimately reconcile farming systems with natural cycles. She then delves into the concepts of "Natural Capitalism" and "Regenerative Economics," highlighting that the future of capitalism will be built on intact community and adaptive values, with energy efficiency and renewable resources already driving prosperity.

The Smart Human with Dr. Aly Cohen
Battling DuPont over Toxic PFAS with guest Robert A. Bilott

The Smart Human with Dr. Aly Cohen

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2023 62:32


Rob is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination.  Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob.  Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.”  Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida, and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world.  Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina.  Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/01/pfas-forever-chemicals-rob-bilott-lawyer-interview https://time.com/5737451/dark-waters-true-story-rob-bilott/ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html https://www.taftlaw.com/people/robert-a-bilott  

Progressive Commentary Hour
The Progressive Commentary Hour - 01.24.23

Progressive Commentary Hour

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 25, 2023 54:51


Dr. Vandana Shiva is an internationally renowned environmental and social activist and a leading pioneer behind India's -- and for that matter the globe's ecological and sustainable agricultural movement. In recent years she has become known as "the Gandhi of Grain." Dr. Shiva is the founder of Navdanya [all “a”s are softly pronounced  NAV-DAN-YA] – an India-based organization dedicated to food and seed sovereignty, the restoration of organic farming, economic justice, and the preservation of indigenous knowledge and culture. Navdanya also has an international branch in Italy and the Earth University learning center for agro-ecology. For several decades, Vandana has traveled the world speaking on behalf of women's rights and against biopiracy, globalization and patenting of indigenous knowledge by large agricultural and pharmaceutical corporations. Her activist efforts have created grassroots organizations throughout the developing world to counter GMOs and empower small farmers and their communities. She has received numerous international awards, including the Alternative Nobel Prize (the Right Livelihood Award), the UNEP's Global 500 Award and the UN's Earth Day International Award.  The award winning documentary "The Seeds of Vandana Shiva" was released last year and among her many important books -- now about 20 in number -- her recent book is "Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements," which recounts her personal journey, her philosophy and various activist movements in a life devoted to preserving human dignity and the biodiversity of the earth.  Dr Shiva's organization's websites are Navdanya.org and NavdanyaInternational.org

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman
Bill McKibben on ‘a moment of extraordinary opportunity'

The Vermont Conversation with David Goodman

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2023 50:51


For this 10th anniversary Vermont Conversation, we invited back our first guest. Bill McKibben was on the inaugural broadcast of the Vermont Conversation on Jan. 16, 2013. As a journalist, he has eloquently chronicled the impact of the climate crisis across the globe and put a human face on what too often is cast as a political or scientific problem. He is the author of some 20 books, including “The End of Nature,” which was the first book to warn the general public about the climate crisis. He writes regularly for the New Yorker and his Substack site, The Crucial Years. His latest book is a memoir, “The Flag, The Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.”McKibben acknowledges that most of his dire predictions about climate change have come true since he first started writing about it three decades ago. And yet he insists “we are actually at a moment of extraordinary opportunity, the convergence of this big mobilization of people around the world.”McKibben has been a key figure in that grassroots mobilization. He founded the global grassroots climate campaign 350.org, and is the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award, and the Right Livelihood Award, known as “the alternative Nobel.” He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College. His latest project is Third Act, which is organizing people older than 60 for progressive change.“The remarkable fall in the price of renewable energy has left us in a place where it's possible to imagine, for the first time, really rapid change. Now, whether it'll come or not will depend on how hard we push. But there's nothing far fetched about it. In fact, it's very clear that 40 years from now, we'll run the world on clean energy, because it's cheap.”Reflecting on key developments of the past decade, McKibben singles out the role of Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I just want Vermonters to be aware and proud of the fact that Bernie (Sanders) played an absolutely pivotal role in the transformation of how this country or large parts of it thinks about itself,” he saidMcKibben believes that the failure of a “red tsunami” of Republican electoral victories last fall is an important signal. “It feels to me like there's people standing up for common sense, for the idea that science is a useful tool, that vaccines were a good development of the 20th century,” he said.He concedes, "Yes, we're living in a country that still is riven, where there's people constantly trying to foment unpleasantness at all times. But that election result was kind of a quiet testimony to the quiet sanity of a fair number of people in this country. So one takes hope where one can find it.”

The Sustainability Agenda
Episode 168: Veteran activist Stephen Corry, former CEO of Survival International, provides a coruscating analysis of the outcome of COP15

The Sustainability Agenda

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2023 53:01


In this hard-hitting, no-holds barred interview, Stephen Corry, who has been working as indigenous rights activist for some 50 years, gives his assessment of the outcome of COP15. Stephen brings an on-the-ground, hands-on perspective, and provides an analysis of the key policies and commitments that have been come out of COP15. In particular, Stephen provides a coruscating analysis of the way protected areas have actually been executed, how indigenous peoples have been systematically kicked off their lands—and sees the 30x30 conservation goal –30% of the planet in protected territories, without any humans—as a deeply cynical endeavour…driven by powerful underlying financial motives.  Stephen Corry has been working now for more than 50 years in the area of indigenous peoples' rights. He is the former CEO of Survival International, a London based charity that campaigns for the rights of uncontacted peoples indigenous and tribal peoples, and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989.

EcoJustice Radio
Dark Waters: Attorney Rob Bilott's Battle Against Dupont To Expose Forever Chemicals

EcoJustice Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2023 66:58


Devil's urine. That's what Dupont employees called PFAS. These toxic, human made forever chemicals are now in the blood of almost every human on the planet. They are found in drinking water around the world, even Antarctica. And they are used in a broad range of consumer products, like non-stick cookware, stain-resistant clothing, waterproof items, dental floss, and even medical masks. These are only a few examples of many. This group of toxic chemicals, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), permanently concentrates in your body and the environment. You can't get rid of them. In fact, they bioaccumulate, meaning they get worse and worse. The public awareness from uncovering of the truth behind Dupont's misdeeds now contaminating much of the planet is tantamount to this generation's Silent Spring. Our guest Rob Bilott is very much a Rachel Carson sort of figure who has stood up to the chemical industry as the lead attorney to bring light to the dangers of PFAS and its many variations. He fought and won a 20+ year battle against Dupont for the poisoning of over 70,000 people in West Virginia and Ohio. His work was even captured in the 2019 feature film, Dark Waters where he was portrayed by Mark Ruffalo. In this interview from Summer 2022, we explore the history of PFAS, what exposure means, where it can be found, and what we can do. For an extended discussion, click here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/extended-with-on-70223811 Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP [https://www.taftlaw.com/people/robert-a-bilott], where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings concerning the toxic chemical, recovering over $1 billion for impacted clients. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Exposure/Robert-Bilott/9781501172823] and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Jessica Aldridge, Co-Host and Producer of EcoJustice Radio, is an environmental educator, community organizer, and 15-year waste industry leader. She is a co-founder of SoCal 350, organizer for ReusableLA, and founded Adventures in Waste. She is a former professor of Recycling and Resource Management at Santa Monica College, and an award recipient of the international 2021 Women in Sustainability Leadership and the 2016 inaugural Waste360, 40 Under 40. More Info: Book: Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Exposure/Robert-Bilott/9781501172823 Feature Film: Dark Waters https://www.focusfeatures.com/dark-waters Documentary: The Devil We Know https://www.amazon.com/Devil-We-Know-Bucky-Bailey/dp/B07J35G3P4 Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/exposing-pfas-global-contamination-one-lawyers-battle-for-justice/ Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Guest: Rob Bilott Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Executive Producer: Jack Eidt Episode 145

TNT Radio
Robert A. Bilott on The Hrvoje Morić Show - 01 December 2022

TNT Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2022 55:49


On today's show Robert A. Bilott discusses corporate greed, environmental destruction, and his book Exposure. GUEST OVERVIEW: Robert A. Bilott is a partner at the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio where he has practiced environmental law and litigation for more than twenty-eight years. He has been selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America for several years running and has received numerous honors for his work in environmental law and litigation. Rob is a former chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association's Environmental Law Committee and a graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida (BA) and the Ohio State University College of Law (JD, cum laude). In 2017, Rob received the international Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his years of work on PFOA. Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont is his first book.

Breaking Green
Offloading Climate Responsibility on the Victims of Climate Change with Nnimmo Bassey

Breaking Green

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 17, 2022 45:17 Transcription Available


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 will 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, will 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.Listen to previous Breaking Green episodes critiquing false solutions to climate change promoted by the UN Climate COP and various corporate actors:• False Solutions to Climate Change • Carbon Colonialism and REDDBreaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187.Photo of Nnimmo Bassey by Anne Petermann/GJEP

Breaking Green
Coming Soon on Breaking Green - Nnimmo Bassey on COP 27

Breaking Green

Play Episode Play 49 sec Highlight Listen Later Oct 12, 2022 0:46


In an upcoming interview on Breaking Green, renowned Nigerian author, scholar and activist Nnimmo Bassey winner of the 2010 Right Livelihood Award, denounces the  upcoming UN Climate Summit: COP 27 in Egypt for being a "rigged process that operates in a colonial manner."Don't miss this episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project. Listen to previous Breaking Green episodes critiquing false solutions to climate change promoted by the UN Climate COP and various corporate actors:• False Solutions to Climate Change  • Carbon Colonialism and REDDBreaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  Simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187.Artwork photo of  African Delegation protesting at the Conference of Parties in Copenhagen 2009 by Orin Langelle.

Cleaning Up. Leadership in an age of climate change.
Ep98: Bill McKibben "Writer, Activist & Constructive Disruptor"

Cleaning Up. Leadership in an age of climate change.

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 7, 2022 57:03


Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He's gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the alternative Nobel, in the Swedish Parliament. Foreign Policy named him to its inaugural list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers. McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organized protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action. He played a leading role in launching the opposition to big oil pipeline projects like Keystone XL, and the fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has become the biggest anti-corporate campaign in history, with endowments worth more than $40 trillion stepping back from oil, gas and coal. He stepped down as board chair of 350 in 2015, and left the board and stepped down from his volunteer role as senior adviser in 2020, accepting emeritus status. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern, where he spends as much time as possible outdoors. In 2014, biologists credited his career by naming a new species of woodland gnat—Megophthalmidia mckibbeni–in his honor.

EcoJustice Radio
Exposing PFAS: Global Contamination & One Lawyer's Battle For Justice

EcoJustice Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 8, 2022 64:25


Devil's urine. That's what Dupont employees called PFAS. These toxic, human made forever chemicals are now in the blood of almost every human on the planet. They are found in drinking water around the world, even Antarctica. And they are used in a broad range of consumer products, like non-stick cookware, stain-resistant clothing, waterproof items, dental floss, and even medical masks. These are only a few examples of many. This group of toxic chemicals, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), permanently concentrates in your body and the environment. You can't get rid of them. In fact, they bioaccumulate, meaning they get worse and worse. The public awareness from uncovering of the truth behind Dupont's misdeeds now contaminating much of the planet is tantamount to this generation's Silent Spring. Our guest Rob Bilott is very much a Rachel Carson sort of figure who has stood up to the chemical industry as the lead attorney to bring light to the dangers of PFAS and its many variations. He fought and won a 20+ year battle against Dupont for the poisoning of over 70,000 people in West Virginia and Ohio. His work was even captured in the 2019 feature film, Dark Waters where he was portrayed by Mark Ruffalo. Rob has continued his groundbreaking work and is looking at the potential of a nationwide class action lawsuit as newer versions of PFAS emerge, unregulated and as dangerous as ever. In this show, we explore the history of PFAS, what exposure means, where it can be found, and what we can do. Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP [https://www.taftlaw.com/people/robert-a-bilott], where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings concerning the toxic chemical, recovering over $1 billion for impacted clients. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Exposure/Robert-Bilott/9781501172823] and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” More Info: Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Exposure/Robert-Bilott/9781501172823 Movie: https://www.focusfeatures.com/dark-waters Documentary: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-We-Know-Bucky-Bailey/dp/B07J35G3P4 National academies of Science: https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2022/07/new-report-calls-for-expanded-pfas-testing-for-people-with-history-of-elevated-exposure-offers-advice-for-clinical-treatment https://www.ewg.org/what-are-pfas-chemicals Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio Guest: Rob Bilott Host and Producer: Jessica Aldridge Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats Executive Producer: Jack Eidt Created by: Mark and JP Morris Episode 145 Photo Credit: Rob Bilott

The Economics Review
Ep. 68 - Bill McKibben | Featured Guest Interview

The Economics Review

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2022 25:56


Bill McKibben is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College and leader of the climate campaign group 350.org. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages.  He has won the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Right Livelihood Award, and honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to its list of the world's 100 most important global thinkers.

Totally Exposed: Real, Raw & Authentic
How Teflon poisoned us all and the story of the lawyer who became DuPont's worst nightmare

Totally Exposed: Real, Raw & Authentic

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2022 71:03


OMG I hope that this episode will be one that you share with everyone you know!     On this episode I got the chance to sit down with Robert Bilott, the real life lawyer who went after DuPont for poisoning us all with Teflon or PFOA, a forever chemical that is in 99% of the population and that our bodies CAN NOT break down and eliminate.  Rob is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years.  During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals.  Rob is the author of the book Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyers 20 year battle Against DuPont and his story inspired the 2019 film Dark Waters (I HIGHLY recommend it!!!!). In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, the Alternative Nobel Prize for his decades of work on the behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination and is frequently invited to be a keynote speaker at colleges across the country. If you want to know the truth this is an episode to definitely listen to!  Please be sure to pick up a copy of Rob's book and/or watch the movie based on his book  

Sense-making in a Changing World
The Food System with Helena Norberg-Hodge and Morag Gamble - World Localization Day Series Part 2 of 4

Sense-making in a Changing World

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2022 59:43


Welcome to the second of this special 4 part series on Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast. I am talking with a pioneer of the new economy movement - internationally claimed localisation activist Helena Norberg-Hodge about the food system. Relocalising the food system is central to creating a shift in the global economy, restoring communities and regenerating landscapes. Regenerative food systems are locally-adapted biodiverse agro-ecosystems deeply connected to place and community.Helena is the initiator of the global celebration of World Localization Day which is being celebrated on 21 June in 2022. Together with Helena, we are celebrating all month with weekly conversations, but also a screening of her new film  Planet Local: A Quiet Revolution and hosting a Masterclass together.Helena is the founder and Director of Local Futures, an international nonprofit organisation dedicated to renewing ecological and social wellbeing by strengthening communities and local economies worldwide.Helena's first book Ancient Futures has been translated into 40 languages and sold over 1 million copies. She's been the subject of hundreds of articles and written many books, including her latest book, Local is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness, which accompanies her award-winning documentary, also called the Economics of Happiness. Helena's work spans almost five decades and she collaborates with leading ecological thinkers. She's been the recipient of a Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize and also the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”I first met Helena back in 1992 at Schumacher College, and was absolutely inspired by the work that she was doing and subsequently volunteered with her in Ladakh (Little Tibet). This is the first of our series of conversations about localisation. A new episode will be released each Wednesday the global economythe food systemcommunity and ecologybig picture activismSo grab your notebook, listen in with friends, follow up by watching Helena's films and delving into her  localisation action guide.Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I'm meeting with you today and pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging I'm here on the unceded lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people and on the banks of the Moocaboola [Mary] River.Thank you so much for being here as part of this series of conversations with Helena Norberg-Hodge.We'd love for you to leave a review and give us a lovely star rating. These really help the algorithm to find this podcast and share it further. Thank you.Morag GamblePermaculture Education Institute

Sense-making in a Changing World
World Localization Day Series Part 1 of 4: The Global Economy with Helena Norberg-Hodge and Morag Gamble (Episode 75)

Sense-making in a Changing World

Play Episode Play 31 sec Highlight Listen Later Jun 1, 2022 61:43


Welcome to the first of this special 4 part series on Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast. I am talking with a pioneer of the new economy movement - internationally claimed localisation activist Helena Norberg-Hodge.  She initiated a global celebration of World Localization Day which is being celebrated on 21 June in 2022, but we are celebrating all month with weekly episodes with Helena.Helena is the founder and Director of Local Futures, an international nonprofit organisation dedicated to renewing ecological and social wellbeing by strengthening communities and local economies worldwide.Helena's first book Ancient Futures has been translated into 40 languages and sold over 1 million copies. She's been the subject of hundreds of articles and written many books, including her latest book, Local is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness, which accompanies her award-winning documentary, also called the Economics of Happiness.Helena's work spans almost five decades and she collaborates with leading ecological thinkers. She's been the recipient of a Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize and also the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.” I first met Helena back in 1992 at Schumacher College, and was absolutely inspired by the work that she was doing and subsequently volunteered with her in Ladakh (Little Tibet). This is the first of our series of conversations about localisation. A new episode will be released each Wednesday the global economythe food systemcommunity and ecologybig picture activismSo grab your notebook, listen in with friends, follow up by watching Helena's films and delving into her  localisation action guide.Local Futures is also releasing a brand new film this month called Bringing the Economy Home: The Rise of the Worldwide Localization Movement. We will be screening this on June 20 at the Permaculture Film Club. Helena will be joining live in conversation at this event.Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I'm meeting with you today and pay respects to their elders past, present and emerging I'm here on the unceded lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people and on the banks of the Moocaboola [Mary] River.Thank you so much for being here as part of this series of conversations with Helena Norberg-Hodge.(Part 1 of this series was originally released in late 2021)Morag GamblePermaculture Education InstituteWe are collaborating with Local Futures and World Localization Day to bring this series to you.

Mongabay Newscast
Vandana Shiva on the agroecology solution for climate change, the biodiversity crisis, and hunger

Mongabay Newscast

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2022 61:10


Agroecology applies ecological principles to agriculture, and it's a key strategy for mitigating--and adapting to climate change--which also boosts biodiversity and food security--and it is the focus of a special series at Mongabay. Joining us first to discuss agroecology as a science, a practice, and a movement is Dr. Maywa Montenegro, an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Then host Mike G. speaks with iconic Indian scientist, activist and Right Livelihood Award winner Dr. Vandana Shiva, whose brand new book, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change, synthesizes decades of agroecology research and implementation. She's also the founder of Navdanya, which is both an agroecology center and a global food sovereignty movement. Dr. Shiva shares how agroecology is an effective solution not just to climate change but also for a host of other ecological crises we're facing, such as water scarcity, land degradation, nutrition and biodiversity loss. Further reading: • ”From traditional practice to top climate solution, agroecology gets growing attention” by Anna Lappé  • "Transitioning to sustainable agriculture requires growing and sustaining an ecologically skilled workforce," Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 96. doi:10.3389/fsufs.2019.00096 Episode artwork: Dr. Vandana Shiva, photo by Kartikey Shiva. If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.

The Creative Process Podcast

Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

The Creative Process Podcast
(Highlights) ROB BILOTT

The Creative Process Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2022


“It's kind of a scary thought. We've got these PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), you hear them now referred to as forever chemicals because these chemicals–none of these existed on the planet prior to World War II–they're fairly recent invention and they have this unique chemical structure that makes them incredibly useful in a lot of different products, manufacturing operations, but also that same chemical structure makes them incredibly persistent and incredibly difficult to break down once they get out into the environment, into the natural world, into our soil, into our water. They simply, many of them, particularly the ones with eight or more carbons in their structure, don't break down under natural conditions. Or it may take thousands or millions of years for those chemicals to start breaking down. But not only that. Once they get into us, they get into people, they tend to accumulate in our blood and build up over time. They not only persist, they bioaccumulate. Unfortunately, as the science has slowly been revealed to the world about what these chemicals can do, we are seeing that they can have all kinds of toxic effects And unfortunately, we're finding that those things can happen at lower and lower dose levels.”“I can't speak highly enough of Mark Ruffalo and what he was able to accomplish with the film. He just did an amazing job. He reached out to me after reading the story that appeared in The New York Times Magazine back in 2016 about this situation down in West Virginia along the Ohio River and was really shocked when he read about it because it was really highlighting an environmental contamination problem that had potentially nationwide, if not worldwide implications but that he had never heard of, and you know he was active in the environmental arena and active in water issues and was surprised that he had not heard of this before and really wanted to find a way to help bring the story out to a wider audience so that we could hopefully start seeing some change in the way type of situations not only develop but how we deal with them. He was able to team up with the folks at Participant Media, who, if you go on their website, and see the types of films they've produced are just incredible filmmakers. Teamed up with Todd Haynes who is an incredible director, and just a terrific cast. Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins and others. Really they were very dedicated to making sure they did the story and brought it to film in the right way, to show what really happened, not only legally and scientifically, but also to real people. What kind of impact these situations have on real people in real communities. What these people went through for 20 years in this community waiting for this process to unfold. So I think they did a tremendous job in taking a very complicated story that involves a lot of science and a lot of law and conveying it in a way that really impresses upon people why this is a story that matters to all of us and why this is a story that really is one that hopefully is inspiring because, as we discussed, it shows that things can be changed. Things that look impossible can be overcome.”Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

One Planet Podcast

Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

One Planet Podcast
(Highlights) ROB BILOTT

One Planet Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2022


“It's kind of a scary thought. We've got these PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), you hear them now referred to as forever chemicals because these chemicals–none of these existed on the planet prior to World War II–they're fairly recent invention and they have this unique chemical structure that makes them incredibly useful in a lot of different products, manufacturing operations, but also that same chemical structure makes them incredibly persistent and incredibly difficult to break down once they get out into the environment, into the natural world, into our soil, into our water. They simply, many of them, particularly the ones with eight or more carbons in their structure, don't break down under natural conditions. Or it may take thousands or millions of years for those chemicals to start breaking down. But not only that. Once they get into us, they get into people, they tend to accumulate in our blood and build up over time. They not only persist, they bioaccumulate. Unfortunately, as the science has slowly been revealed to the world about what these chemicals can do, we are seeing that they can have all kinds of toxic effects And unfortunately, we're finding that those things can happen at lower and lower dose levels.”“I can't speak highly enough of Mark Ruffalo and what he was able to accomplish with the film. He just did an amazing job. He reached out to me after reading the story that appeared in The New York Times Magazine back in 2016 about this situation down in West Virginia along the Ohio River and was really shocked when he read about it because it was really highlighting an environmental contamination problem that had potentially nationwide, if not worldwide implications but that he had never heard of, and you know he was active in the environmental arena and active in water issues and was surprised that he had not heard of this before and really wanted to find a way to help bring the story out to a wider audience so that we could hopefully start seeing some change in the way type of situations not only develop but how we deal with them. He was able to team up with the folks at Participant Media, who, if you go on their website, and see the types of films they've produced are just incredible filmmakers. Teamed up with Todd Haynes who is an incredible director, and just a terrific cast. Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins and others. Really they were very dedicated to making sure they did the story and brought it to film in the right way, to show what really happened, not only legally and scientifically, but also to real people. What kind of impact these situations have on real people in real communities. What these people went through for 20 years in this community waiting for this process to unfold. So I think they did a tremendous job in taking a very complicated story that involves a lot of science and a lot of law and conveying it in a way that really impresses upon people why this is a story that matters to all of us and why this is a story that really is one that hopefully is inspiring because, as we discussed, it shows that things can be changed. Things that look impossible can be overcome.”Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Books & Writers · The Creative Process

Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info

Books & Writers · The Creative Process

“It's kind of a scary thought. We've got these PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), you hear them now referred to as forever chemicals because these chemicals–none of these existed on the planet prior to World War II–they're fairly recent invention and they have this unique chemical structure that makes them incredibly useful in a lot of different products, manufacturing operations, but also that same chemical structure makes them incredibly persistent and incredibly difficult to break down once they get out into the environment, into the natural world, into our soil, into our water. They simply, many of them, particularly the ones with eight or more carbons in their structure, don't break down under natural conditions. Or it may take thousands or millions of years for those chemicals to start breaking down. But not only that. Once they get into us, they get into people, they tend to accumulate in our blood and build up over time. They not only persist, they bioaccumulate. Unfortunately, as the science has slowly been revealed to the world about what these chemicals can do, we are seeing that they can have all kinds of toxic effects And unfortunately, we're finding that those things can happen at lower and lower dose levels.”“I can't speak highly enough of Mark Ruffalo and what he was able to accomplish with the film. He just did an amazing job. He reached out to me after reading the story that appeared in The New York Times Magazine back in 2016 about this situation down in West Virginia along the Ohio River and was really shocked when he read about it because it was really highlighting an environmental contamination problem that had potentially nationwide, if not worldwide implications but that he had never heard of, and you know he was active in the environmental arena and active in water issues and was surprised that he had not heard of this before and really wanted to find a way to help bring the story out to a wider audience so that we could hopefully start seeing some change in the way type of situations not only develop but how we deal with them. He was able to team up with the folks at Participant Media, who, if you go on their website, and see the types of films they've produced are just incredible filmmakers. Teamed up with Todd Haynes who is an incredible director, and just a terrific cast. Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins and others. Really they were very dedicated to making sure they did the story and brought it to film in the right way, to show what really happened, not only legally and scientifically, but also to real people. What kind of impact these situations have on real people in real communities. What these people went through for 20 years in this community waiting for this process to unfold. So I think they did a tremendous job in taking a very complicated story that involves a lot of science and a lot of law and conveying it in a way that really impresses upon people why this is a story that matters to all of us and why this is a story that really is one that hopefully is inspiring because, as we discussed, it shows that things can be changed. Things that look impossible can be overcome.”Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 31 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals. In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob's story and work is also featured in the documentary, “The Devil We Know.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from both Ohio State University and New College. · www.taftlaw.com · www.oneplanetpodcast.org · www.creativeprocess.info