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Hi everyone, we’re back with Debbie Clemens who is with the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. In this episode we talk all about palm oil and its effects. The sourcing of palm oil causes conflict because it has been produced illegally or under conditions associated with labor or human rights violations, ongoing destruction of rainforests, or expansion on carbon-rich peatlands.
One of the most pressing concerns associated with Palm Oil is its environmental impact. The expansion of palm oil plantations has been linked to deforestation, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss. In many cases, pristine rainforests are cleared to make way for these plantations, leading to the loss of critical habitat for endangered species like orangutans, tigers, and rhinoceroses. Deforestation also contributes to climate change by releasing stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
With Debbie we talk about what palm oil is, where you can commonly find it, the ethics around it, and more.
Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected]https://redapes.org/
https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/
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In this episode I continue my conversation with Debbie Clemens who is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. We talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Tune in for the last episode of the series in two weeks.
Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected]
https://redapes.org/
https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/
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Debbie Clemens is the Outreach Coordinator for Orangutan Outreach. They are a US based charity that focuses on raising awareness and raising funds for their partners in Indonesia. They are personally not doing the orangutan rescue and rehabilitation work themselves, but are supporting those who are.
Mankind may be one of the orangutans' closest relatives but humans are also the greatest threat to the orangutans' survival. Clear cutting, forest fires and hunting are reducing orangutan numbers to alarmingly low levels. Never before has their very existence been threatened so severely.
Orangutans used to live in many different parts of Southeast Asia, but the places where they can thrive and find food are quickly vanishing. In Borneo and Sumatra, their last remaining homes, large parts of the old growth rainforest are gone, ripped up for farmland, palm oil plantations and urban development. And the precious little forest that is left is disappearing rapidly as palm oil companies continue to illegally clearcut enormous areas of forest.
With Debbie we talk about the behind the scenes work that goes into making field work possible for these creatures. Although we ultimately talk about how saving orangutans is actually saving ourselves. This is a three part series so - look out for the next episodes in the coming weeks.
Contact and connect with Debbie: [email protected]https://redapes.org/
https://palmdoneright.com/what-is-conflict-palm-oil/
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Leif Cocks is the Founder of The Orangutan Project. They are a passionate group of people based in Australia and are dedicated to saving the orangutan. They are led by an experienced set of wildlife experts that have been working for over 20 years to protect this species and their environment. And together they are working to protect orangutans from extinction.
Orangutans are the most intelligent beings on the planet after human beings, and they adapt to the environment by passing on culture through each generation. They are a self-aware being and as intelligent as a six year old child. Also being the slowest reproducing species in the world, they are highly prone to extinction, so if we do not act now we could lose them in our lifetime.
Contact and connect with Leif: [email protected]The Orangutan Project: https://www.theorangutanproject.org/
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Ben Frition is the Founder of The REED Center which is a Maryland-based nonprofit that seeks to repair the holistic connection of humans and their environment through research, engaging communities in farm programming, developing self-perpetuating ecosystems, and designing natural landscapes on residential and commercial scales. They strive to inspire and empower humanity to reconnect with Nature and co-create a more resilient, equitable, and abundant future for all communities on the planet.
They also have a Food Forest, that seeks to develop scalable diversified agro-ecosystems to produce both the maximized productively of land in both volume of food, as well as the more important bionutrient density of said food. Ben's work spawned from seeing the failures of reforestation projects that get cut down as the needs of people are unmet. He's been developing agricultural models that meet both the environmental imperative of biodiversity & resilience AND the acute needs of humans.Transitioning from almost three centuries of conventional agriculture into a diverse nature mimicking polyculture, the food forest offers a unique opportunity to study, document, and record the rejuvenation of this land over time. They intend to use this relatively standard agricultural canvas to collect key data, iterate on best practices, and pioneer novel methodologies for regenerative land management.
Contact and connect with Ben: [email protected]
REED Center: https://thereedcenter.org/
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Elizabeth Gillispie is Soil Scientist and Soil Health Vineyard Manager at Washington State University as well as a member of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA).
Soil is the loose surface material that covers most land. It consists of inorganic particles and organic matter. Soils are not only the resource for food production, but they are the support for our structures, the medium for waste disposal, they maintain our playgrounds, distribute and store water and nutrients, and support our environment. They support more life beneath their surface than what exists above. With Elizabeth, we talk about the many different ways soil supports our life and is key in functioning our society.
Contact and connect: [email protected]Soil Science of America: https://www.soils.org/
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Lisa Sorg is the Assistant Editor and Environmental Reporter at NC Newsline. She helps manage newsroom operations while covering the environment, climate change, agriculture and energy. She talks with me in two other so listen to episodes 8 and 11 to hear more from her.
Within the episode we mostly reference NC drinking water suppliers, although you can apply this same information to your own area. According to the EPA, there are approximately 150,000 public water systems that provide drinking water to most Americans. Customers that are served by a public water system are able to contact their local water supplier and ask for information on contaminants in their drinking water, and are encouraged to request a copy of their Consumer Confidence Report. This report lists the levels of contaminants that have been detected in the water, including those by EPA, and whether the system meets state and EPA drinking water standards. Then about 10 percent of people in the United States rely on water from private wells. Private wells are not regulated and people who use private wells need to take precautions to ensure their drinking water is safe.
Contact or connect with Lisa: [email protected]Consumer Confidence Report: https://www.epa.gov/ccr/ccr-information-consumers
Drinking water info: https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-about-your-drinking-water
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Ben Tettlebaum is the Director & Senior Staff Attorney at The Wilderness Society. Across the U.S. there are 618 million acres of federal public lands, including national parks and forests, wildlife refuges and federally managed desert and prairie lands. Many of these special places are threatened by climate change and poor management decisions that favor development over conservation. And they are important to protect as they are a key piece of our natural heritage.
Within the episode we talk about the Western Arctic, in regards to federal land laws and to give some more background, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge) is a place of spectacular beauty as well as ecological and cultural significance, but right now it's vulnerable to oil and gas development. These industries threaten to pollute our air and water, degrade public lands, and ruin an Indigenous way of life. So we talk about what the Wilderness Society is doing to help there.
BREDL has had a past working relationship with The Wilderness Society. In 1992, the Virginia Dept. of Transportation (VDOT) wanted to relocate U.S. 58 and make it a four-lane highway, bisecting the Mt. Rogers National Recreation Area in S.W. Virginia. Citizens formed a BREDL chapter Mountain Heritage Alliance (MHA) and worked with another BREDL chapter Graysonites for Progressive Change to fight the VDOT proposal. The Wilderness Society (TWS) was instrumental in this fight and continues to do great work for public lands to stay public.
Contact or connect with Ben: [email protected]How to protect the Arctic: https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/5-questions-how-protect-arctic-oil-drilling
Here’s a brief press release for the victory: https://archive.bredl.org/MHA/may96pr.html
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Serenella Linares is a naturalist at Mt Rainier Nature Center and also on the board of The Mycological Association of Washington, DC. (MAWDC for short)
This episode we talk about mushrooms. When we think of mushrooms, most of us think of the edible ones we can buy at the grocery store, but really they are everywhere and are vital to our ecosystems. First to give some mushroom terminology , mycelium is the root-like structure of a fungus that has networks underground, then fungi is any of a group of spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter which includes mushrooms, mushrooms are then what we normally think of as a growth with a domed cap.
They are all critically important in most earthbound ecosystems as they provide life-sustaining mineral nutrients to plants while decomposing their remains, and recycling both organic and inorganic byproducts throughout the biome as they grow and reproduce. Through mycelium, mushrooms help other plants share nutrients and communicate through chemical signals. Fungi make nutrients available to plants either through decomposition and nutrient cycling, or by directly transporting nutrients to the plants, or in some cases, both processes occur.
With Serenella we speak about the history of mushrooms, myco-remediation, fungal DNA sequencing, identification and more.
MAWDC: https://www.mawdc.org/Mushroom articles: https://phys.org/news/2022-08-mushrooms-main-character-ecosystems.html#:~:text=Fungi%2C%20which%20produce%20mushrooms%2C%20are,as%20they%20grow%20and%20reproduce.
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Andres Chang is the Senior Research Specialist at Greenpeace. Just last year in 2023, Greenpeace came out with a report that Andres was the lead writer on, called Dollars VS. Democracy. The report talks about how Americans overwhelmingly support government action on the climate crisis. As a result, the fossil fuel industry has expanded its playbook to delay the transition to clean energy and protect its profits through efforts that undermine our right to free speech.
Since the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock in 2016, oil and gas companies have played a key role in the creation and spread of anti-protest laws with provisions specifically intended to stifle protest near fossil fuel facilities. 18 states accounting for roughly 60% of oil and gas production have enacted sweeping versions of such legislation. Another four states have enacted narrower versions of the same legislation, which could be exploited by prosecutors seeking to issue trumped-up charges against peaceful protesters.
Within the episode we talk about all this report, from the creation of it, key points, its significance, and what their plans for it are. BREDL sent documents to Greenpeace to use in this report, so we discuss that as well. The Anti-Slap petition that Andres mentions in the episode will be linked in the show notes below, so please sign on to that as well as a link to the full report.
FULL REPORT: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/dollars-vs-dissent/
SIGN THE ANTI-SLAP PETITION: https://engage.us.greenpeace.org/kuCKizua206SG48Bs-kTFg2
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Jesse Howe is the Assistant Director of the Coastal Conservation Association, Maryland (CCA) whose purpose is to advise and educate the public on the conservation of our marine resources. They seek to conserve, promote and enhance the present and future availability of coastal resources for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public.
One of the main projects CCA does are living reefs, which are reef balls that they create in the Chesapeake Bay to provide important habitat for oysters and other estuarine critters and they are valued in both fresh and Bay waters. And since the 1700’s oyster populations have seen dramatic decline due to over-harvesting, disease, habitat loss and more and the Bay has really seen the effects of that as oysters are natural filters. Therefore the reef balls offer a place for oysters to come back to the Bay and help maintain healthy waters and the ecosystem.
With Jesse we talk about why Maryland's coastline is ecologically significant, the goals of the Living Reefs, how they get the community involved, citizen science, and how to support their work.
Contact and connect with Jesse: [email protected]CCA Maryland: https://www.ccamd.org/
https://www.ccamd.org/product/cca-membership/
https://www.ccamd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Vision_Chesapeake_Final.pdf
https://www.instagram.com/cca_md/
https://www.facebook.com/CCAMARYLAND
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Ann Rodgers is BREDL’s Grant Writer. In 2021 BREDL received a grant from the EPA, which Ann wrote to fund an air monitoring program, called CARE-4-Air, for our chapters who are experiencing air quality issues in their community.
I misspoke in my intro as there will be 10 air monitoring sites in TN,NC, SC, GA, and VA. These sites are all currently subject to significant sources of air pollution, including: coal-burning power generation, wood-burning biomass gasification, industrial landfill, biochar production, wood pellet manufacturing, railroad operation, biomass plant operation, coal ash deposition, natural gas compressor stations, prescribed forest burning, and asphalt plants. Many of the affected communities are experiencing documented health impacts associated with air pollution generated by these industrial operations. And then among the 10 sites at which monitoring will be conducted, 6 of them have documented health risks for African American communities.
BREDL staff and chapters are scheduled to start monitoring this spring to collect further data.
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Matt Rutherford is one of the CO-Directors & Expedition Leaders of Ocean Research Project, which is a nonprofit whose mission is to observe the unknown and monitor humanity’s impact on the Ocean through dedicated interdisciplinary field expeditions. Two of the main projects they focus on is research on the melting glaciers in Greenland as well as marine plastic pollution.
Greenland has a vast coastline and the surrounding waters are largely uncharted and under-monitored due to the harsh conditions and remote location. Therefore, the Ocean Research Project goes out and pursues the observations necessary for scientists to define the conditions for monitoring the effects of climate change on the Arctic marine environment.
Then the other project we talk about is marine debris, ORP has conducted multiple research expeditions in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. ORP completed its first marine debris research expedition in 2013. During this trip, its crew spent 70 days sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, collecting samples of plastic trash in the water and mapping out the eastern side of the North Atlantic garbage patch. They are now doing local work in the Chesapeake Bay and have helped increase the scientific community’s understanding of plastic pollution’s pervasive distribution across oceans from the sea ice to the seabed.
Ocean Research Project: https://www.oceanresearchproject.org/Articles:
Plastic Pollution in the World’s Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea
PCBs and PBDEs in microplastic particles and zooplankton in open water in the Pacific Ocean and around the coast of Japan
Mitigation strategies to reverse the rising trend of plastics in Polar Regions
Support ORP’s work:
https://www.oceanresearchproject.org/support-ocean-research/
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Elissa Huffstetler and Theresa Ahrens are Residents of southeastern Person County, NC where Dominion Energy is wanting to put a facility that would include a 25 million gallon liquified natural gas storage tank, and plans submitted by Dominion suggest that a second tank could be built there in the future. The facility could emit 65,579 tons of greenhouse gasses, specifically methane, each year and not to mention, the what is produced there will not be used in the area, but other counties.
There are many concerns about this facility including air pollution, fire explosion risk, endangered species in the streams and creeks nearby, and loss of local wetland, forestland, and farms.
On November 9th residents went to a meeting about rezoning the land from rural to industrial for the plant to be placed there and more than 100 people came to speak out about their concerns. Many neighbors at the community meeting said they are concerned about the potential for fires or explosions. Vapor clouds are composed not only of methane, but of flammable refrigerants that can ignite. And they will be continuing the fight at future meetings.
Contact and connect: [email protected] and [email protected]More info: https://ncnewsline.com/2023/11/03/dominion-plans-large-liquified-natural-gas-facility-in-person-county-near-rougemont/
https://bredl.org/resources/person-county-planning-board-recommends-rezoning-for-lng-facility-amid-public-outrage/
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Adam Ratner is the Associate Director of Conservation Education at Marine Mammal Center.
The Marine Mammal Center advances global ocean conservation through rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research, and education. They are the world's largest marine mammal hospital and rescues more marine mammals than any other organization in the world, covering a rescue range that spans 600 miles of California coastline and Hawai‘i.
Within the episode we talk about overfishing. Overfishing simply refers to the process of taking more fish out of the sea than can reproduce and replenish naturally. With the use of massive industrial fishing practices and nets that can stretch for miles, it isn’t only the targeted animals that are at risk, but also other animals that are caught by accident and killed.
With billions of people around the world relying on seafood, the pressure on fish stocks has never been greater. Currently, one-third of all fisheries around the world are overfished, and the rate is increasing drastically so we must take action now to support healthy fish stocks for people and animals.
Contact and connect:
Marine Mammal Center: [email protected]
https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/science-conservation/conservation/sustainable-seafood/wild-caught-seafood
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Sarah Ludington is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the First Amendment Clinicare and Kyle Compton is a Local News Fellow of the Clinic.
The First Amendment Clinic at Duke University provides students the opportunity to work directly with clients facing free expression concerns, including defamation, content-discrimination, and reporter’s privilege. Their services are pro bono and open to the public’s use.
BREDL has used their services as we were waiting for PFAS records from the NC Department of Environmental Quality for 8 months and when we reached out to the Clinic and they sent a demand letter on our behalf, we got the records immediately.
To contact and connect with the Duke First Amendment Clinic is in the show notes below. Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode.
Contact and connect: [email protected]
First Amendment Clinic: https://law.duke.edu/firstamendment/
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We’re back to continue our conversation with Jay Feldmen who is Executive Director with Beyond Pesticides. Go back to the previous episode to learn the background of Beyond Pesticides and what they are doing. And now here is the rest of our conversation.
Beyond Pesticides are science and research based. They seek to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, they reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. They believe that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly and that decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them.
With Jay, we discuss what pesticides are, common places they are found, effects they give to humans, research they’ve done and are continually doing, alternatives, and how it is all interconnected.
Jay has a wealth of knowledge, so to contact and connect with him will be in the show notes below. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy the episode.
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Jay Feldman is the Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides.
Beyond Pesticides are science and research based. They seek to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, they reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. They believe that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly and that decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them.
With Jay, we discuss what pesticides are, common places they are found, effects they give to humans, research they’ve done and are continually doing, alternatives, and how it is all interconnected.
Jay has a wealth of knowledge, so to contact and connect with him will be in the show notes below. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy the episode.
This episode will be broken into two episodes since it’s longer, so be on the lookout for it in two weeks.
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Emily Scarr is with the Maryland Public Interest Research Group.
Maryland PIRG is an advocate for the public interest. They speak out for the public and stand up to special interests on problems that affect the public's health, safety and wellbeing.
For every issue they work on, they have a bold vision of how to transform our country. Although, they understand that change comes one step at a time, and often powerful interests are standing in the way. The focus is on making a difference for the public, not just making a statement.
With Emily we speak about the campaigns she is working on from energy issues to PFAS contamination in Maryland. She ends the conversation with saying Maryland can be a great state to be leading the change and then for other states to follow.
Contact and connect with Emily: [email protected]
Maryland PIRG: https://pirg.org/maryland/ -
This is the continuation of last week’s episode of interviews from my week at the International Peace Camp in the Netherlands. Go back to the last episode to get the background of why we were there and actions we did, and those stories. And without further ado, here are the rest of the conversations.
45 of us from around Europe and the U.S. gathered together for a week of actions in protest against the U.S. Nuclear bombs stored at the Volkel Air Base. The Netherlands is one of five NATO members to host US nuclear weapons on its territory as part of a nuclear-sharing agreement. The Dutch air force is assigned approximately 15 B61 nuclear bombs, which are deployed at the Air Base. And The F-35 and F-16 fighter-bombers emit over 10 tons of CO2 per flight hour practicing to bomb the world with new, even ‘better’ nuclear bombs in the next war. And during the week, we heard those fighter-bombers practicing numerous times a day.
First is Marion Kuper from Germany who is speaking at our gathering on Hiroshima Day about the nuclear free work in Germany and reads some of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), then we talk with Judith from Germany, Hubert from Germany, Vera from the U.S., Brian from the U.S., Onnau from Germany, Ria from Germany, Theo from the U.S. and then Susan from the U.S.
These are just a few stories and testimonies from the week there. You can check out the links below to learn about why we were there and nuclear sharing in general. There is also some background noise, since I record this in person with people, so I apologize for that.
News coverage: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/10/nuclear_protests_netherlands
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