“There’s so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.” -Lily Tomlin
We all know plastic is a problem. It has been estimated that between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are manufactured across the world each year. In the US alone, 12 million barrels of oil go toward plastic bag production. And with the popularity of bottled water, the number of plastic bottles disposed of every year around the world has soared to 200 billion. This massive use of “disposable” plastics creates an enormous amount of harmful waste, and exacerbates our unhealthy reliance on petroleum. So what is to be done?
This week on Sea Change Radio we speak with the leader of an organization that’s trying to raise awareness of a particular plastic problem, and with a scientist whose team is developing a new process that could help actually solve the plastic problem. First, we talk with Doug Woodring, a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur and environmentalist whose Project Kaisei is making strides to highlight the enormous floating plastic mass in the North Pacific known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Then we hear from the head of IBM’s Almaden Research Center, Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan, who describes his team’s latest breakthrough, an earth-friendly, endlessly recyclable plastic.
This week on Sea Change Radio, Alex Wise speaks with Eric Frothingham of the One World Futbol Project, an effort underwritten by Sting, to create a soccer ball to last a lifetime. Next, we hear from photojournalist, Ethan Daniels, who recently published a photobook entitled Under Cape Cod Waters, which provides a fascinating glimpse into the hidden beauty of one of America’s natural treasures.
Producing biofuel is kind of like brewing beer, a practice that’s been around since the Phoenicians and Egyptians first fermented things, according to Bill Haywood, CEO of the San Francisco-based company LS9. He explains to Sea Change Radio host, Alex Wise, how his company uses gut bacterium E. Coli’s digestion capabilities (which have been around for billions of years) to convert sugar to biofuels and chemicals. The LS9 interview ends asking, where can we drivers actually get these biofuels? That’s the question that Karri Ving, Biofuel Coordinator for SFGreasecycle, seeks to answer. The program diverts fryer oil from being dumped in San Francisco’s sewers to turn it into biofuels that power the city’s entire diesel fleet.
In Part I of Alex Wise‘s Sea Change Radio conversation with Stewart Brand, Brand makes his case for expanding nuclear energy. In Part II, Brand takes an unexpected position on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), one which calls into question fundamental assumptions that underlie environmentalism itself. Stewart Brand is an American writer best known as the editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. His most recent book is Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto.
We profile two pioneers in the local food movement on Sea Change Radio this week. Host Alex Wise speaks with The Breakaway Cook, Eric Gower, about fusing locally-grown food with global flavors and The Ethical Butcher, Berlin Reed, about selecting food from local farms and farmers’ markets. Both guests are commited to sustainability in their food preparation without compromising the search for authentically delicious culinary experiences.
UCLA Urban Planning Professor, Donald Shoup, advocates for a different way to view parking the cars we drive. While he freely admits that nobody likes to pay for parking, he feels strongly that the cost of parking is embedded in our lifestyle and that abundant free parking comes with a very dear price. This week on Sea Change Radio, Alex Wise speaks with Donald Shoup, parking policy authority and author of The High Cost of Free Parking. They discuss the environmental impact of free parking and Shoup offers a rational for revising traditional approaches to urban planning.
In some parts of the world, millions of people struggle daily for access to safe drinking water, while elsewhere people consume water at nonrenewable rates. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with two individuals who are working to help find a solution. Alex Wise talks with Carlos Perea, the CEO of Miox, an Albuquerque-based water purification company that uses salt and electrolysis to make potable water. Perea explains how Miox’s technology can be a cost-effective solution for both a hiker and an entire municipality. Dr. Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan, who heads IBM’s Almaden Lab Science & Technology Organization, discusses his team’s approach to developing energy-efficient, large-scale desalination systems using both reverse and forward osmosis (here’s a video about their work):
Alex Wise speaks with Stewart Brand, author, Merry Prankster, and one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement. In the first part of this two-part interview, Brand discusses his provocative new book, Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, and makes the case for nuclear energy expansion. Brand’s pro-nuclear stance has certainly ruffled a number of feathers in the environmental movement. Since the book’s publication, Brand has been debating luminaries on the topic from Amory Lovins (Grist article) to Mark Jacobson (here’s video from TED conference):
Sea Change Radio’s Alex Wise speaks with Louie Psihoyos, the Producer and Director of the Academy Award-winning documentary film, “The Cove.” They discuss how the movie is raising awareness about the capture and slaughter of dolphins and dangerously high mercury levels in our oceans. The co-founder of the Oceanic Preservation Society, Louie speaks candidly about the challenges making and distributing a film against the wishes of some Japanese officials and examines the even bigger sustainability issues that the film illuminates.
“Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis — once that crisis can be recognized and understood.” -author Norman Cousins
Sea Change is a a nationally syndicated weekly radio show and podcast covering the shift to social, environmental, and economic sustainability. You can contact us here.
“There’s so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic.” -Lily Tomlin
