Michael KlareCWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks with Hampshire College Professor Michael Klare about his new book, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy. Klare defines the term “resource nationalism,” whereby access to energy increasingly drives global politics. For example, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline runs from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, through Georgia, thereby circumventing Russia. In the interview conducted last week, Klare predicted possible conflict over energy access between Russia and Georgia, ensnaring the US. As this episode of CWR was in production, Georgian officials announced they are “very close” to war with Russia. Klare ends the interview suggesting renewable energies as a solution for diverting energy access from conflict to peace.
Jodie Van Horn of the Rainforest Action Network analyzes biofuels, which divert agriculture from food to fuel, spurring food riots globally and driving deforestation.
Richard HeinbergCWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon speak with peak oil expert Richard Heinberg, senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and author of The Party’s Over, Powerdown, The Oil Depletion Protocol, and, most recently, Peak Everything. CWR caught up with Heinberg during his northeast speaking tour, where he is addressing local officials in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts where Corporate Watchdog Radio originates. In the absence of federal leadership addressing climate change and peak oil, Heinberg has turned his attention to creating resilient communities, and he proposes 10 steps to create local disaster response plans to prepare for peak oil as well as environmental and economic collapse. While the data Heinberg presents paints a dire picture, he also advocates for hope and optimism as a strategic response to existing and impending crises.
CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue attended the conference, hosted by investor-environmentalist coalition Ceres and its Investor Network on Climate Risk. Rheannon speaks with British Telecom Pension Scheme Trustee Donald MacDonald about the impact of war on climate change and what institutional investors can do to address it.
Alisa GravitzBaue speaks with Co-op America CEO Alisa Gravitz about its multi-tiered approach to address climate change through member company actions, investor advocacy, and consumer activism. And Ian Gray of Ceres speaks with McKinsey Global Institute Director Diana Farrell about its new report on energy efficiency. We also excerpt highlights from the presentations by Harvard Professor and Woods Hole Research Center Director John Holdren outlining the current science on climate change and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney placing climate change in the social context.
CWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon speak with Eric Cohen, chairperson for Investors against Genocide and Tim Smith, senior vice president at Walden Asset Management and immediate past chair of the Social Investment Forum, about the campaign promoting targeted divestment by mutual funds from companies supporting the Khartoum regime in the Sudan.
Smith, who helped pioneer the practice of shareholder activism encouraging companies to adopt more sustainable and responsible practices as a founder of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, discusses the novelty and efficacy of engaging mutual funds, which has rarely been practiced until now.
Eric CohenCohen explains the strategy in-depth, noting that the SEC upheld its validity after mutual fund giant Fidelity challenged it legally. He also cites a 2007 survey in which 71% of respondents said that mutual fund companies should take into account extreme cases of human rights abuses when investing overseas, rather than make their investment decisions on economic criteria alone.
Joel MakowerCWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon talk with GreenBiz.com founder and executive editor Joel Makower about the first annual report on The State of Green Business, which GreenBiz.com released today on January 30, 2008. The report identifies the top ten green business news stories of 2007, and also introduces the GreenBiz Index, a collection of 20 indicators ranking the progress of green business practice as “swimming,” “treading,” or “sinking.”
Corporate Watchdog Radio presents a special video presentation on the phone companies, the National Security Agency and our civil liberties. Ransacking Liberty is a 11.5 minute video that discusses how phone company spying may jeopardize the rights of reporters, whistle blowers and protesters.
Amber Chand discusses how the Jerusalem Candle of Hope, made collaboratively by Palestinian and Israeli craftswomen on either side of the checkpoint separating them, bridges the political divide between the two countries. Also, an update on Coca-Cola, which was recently deleted from the KLD Broad Market Social Index, prompting TIAA-CREF to dump 1.2 million Coke shares worth $52.4 million from the CREF Social Choice Account.
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed major changes to dilute the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which makes information on the harmful pollution companies release into the air publicly available. Joining us in the studio is Jim Boyce, director of environmental programs at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) of the University of Massachusetts, which has just published its annual “Toxic 100” list ranking the corporations emitting the most toxic pollution.
Joining us on the phone is Julie Gorte, vice president and chief social investment strategist at Calvert, who is active in a campaign opposing the EPA’s proposed gutting of TRI.
In 2006, Corporate Watchdog Radio will focus on corporate social and environmental responsibility as it plays out in the investment marketplace. We begin the year with a wideranging review of how that theme played out in 2005. CWR reviews the mainstreaming of the socially responsible investment movement, with developments at the United Nations, Goldman Sachs, DuPont, Walmart, SRI backlash movement, body burdens of toxic chemicals, toxics in products at DuPont and other companies, climate risk, corporate governance, state pension funds and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Every day looks a lot like Christmas for corporations looking for subsidy handouts from local governments. Author and activist Greg Leroy describes the “Great American Jobs Scam” in which corporations seek subsidies from state and local governments, giving little in return.
Then, an update on the saga of fisher woman Diane Wilson. She’s recently been arrested at a Tom Delay fundraiser and sent to jail for at least four months. Her crime: calling attention to Dow Chemical’s responsibility for cleaning up the enormous environmental,health and economic mess its subsidiary Union Carbide has left behind in Bhopal, India.
Finally, a holiday reflection from Dr. Jody, in the Corner Office at Corporate Watchdog Radio.
