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Episodes
- How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth
(29mb)
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:41:17 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
While some view the negative impacts of economics and environment as separate, Herve Kempf sees financial inequality and environmental destruction as inextricably linked. The author of How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth, Kempf explains how the wealthy of the world are living unsustainable lifestyles, and everyone else is trashing the earth too trying to keep up with the rich Joneses. The solution? Move away from materialism and growth.
Listen
Herve Kempf
CWR News Analysis -- The Greening of Wal-Mart?: Listen
Sources:
--CSRwire: "Wal-Mart Celebrates Thanksgiving by Sourcing Local Food, Supporting Hunger-Relief, and Buying Wind Power"
--GreenBiz: "Wal-Mart's New CEO: What Does it Mean for Green?"
--The Green Wave Marches On: Wal-Mart in China
--Grist: "Wal-Mart Comes to the Farmers Market"
--Press Release: "Walmart Gives Consumers Opportunity To Support Local Economies Through Locally Grown Program"
--Cornucopia Institute: Wal-Mart Organics: Market Expansion or Market Delusion?
--Press Release: "Wal-Mart Makes Major Commitment to Renewable Wind Power"
--Wal-Mart Carbon Disclosure Project Response, 2007
--Lee Scott Message in Wal-Mart Sustainability Progress report, 2007
CWR ViewPoint: Listen
Bloomberg Columnist Jonathan Weil, the first journalist to expose Enron's cooked books in 2001, recently criticized President-Elect Barack Obama's appointments to the Transition Economic Advisory Board, pointing out that almost half hail from companies that fried their financial statements or fueled the market meltdown -- or both. CWR Co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon chat with Weil about his critique.
"Obama's Bailout Bunch Brings Us More of the Same"
"Rubinomics Recalculated" - A Global Green Deal (29mb)
Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:38:08 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
At the G-20 Summit addressing the global financial crisis this weekend, the government leaders of the world's largest economies essentially twiddled their thumbs, punting on setting ambitious goals until April 2009 -- when the Barack Obama Administration, which is dedicated to addressing the financial crisis and the climate crisis, is in office. Before the Summit, Worldwatch Institute Senior Researchers Michael Renner and Gary Gardner proposed that the G-20 enact a Global Green Deal, evocative of FDR?s new deal but more audacious in scope and vision. CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue speak with Renner about the proposal's 5 strategies, including transitioning to a renewable energy economy, launching an efficiency revolution, and investing in green infrastructure.
And speaking of green infrastructure, Deutsche Asset Management issued a report calling for the establishment of a ?green? National Infrastructure Bank. Bill Baue speaks with Deutsche Climate Change Investment Research Director Bruce Kahn about the report, a followup on the Investing in Climate Change 2009: Necessity and Opportunity in Turbulent Times report CWR covered recently.
Listen
"Building a Green Economy: It?s Time for the G20 to Focus on a Global Green Deal"
Michael Renner
Report: Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world
Bruce Kahn
Deutsche Asset Management Report: Economic Stimulus: The Case for ?Green? Infrastructure, Energy Security and ?Green? Jobs
CWR News Analysis: Listen
News Sources:
--Pew Research Center on the People and the Environment "A Deeper Partisan Divide Over Global Warming"
--Schwarzenegger Blames Global Warming for Elongated Fire Season
--BBC: "Emissions up in developed nations"
--NY Times: "Pollution Has Leveled Off, but the Figures Have Holes"
--Pam Solo: "Saving Detroit from itself"
--Marketplace: "Obama meant it about C02"
CWR ViewPoint: Listen
The Top BENNY Award for 2008, given to activist campaigns holding corporations accountable by the Business Ethics Network (BEN), went to the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for bringing Chevron to justice for decades of pollution in the Amazon. The campaign is led by the Amazon Defense Coalition and Amazon Watch. Mitch Anderson of Amazon Watch has our commentary today, produced in partnership with BEN.
Amazon Watch
ChevronToxico
Business Ethics Network - Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging (29mb)
Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:33:32 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
What's behind the rise in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's? Lifetime exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment such as fossil fuel pollution, as it turns out. This according to a new report from the Science and Environmental Health Network and Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility. Today, CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks with the report's lead author, Jill Stein, who heads the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities. Dr. Stein also ran for governor of the commonwealth in 2002 on the Green-Rainbow ticket, as well as Secretary of State in 2006.
Listen
Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities
Report: Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging
Jill Stein
Listen to the complete 40-minute interview with Jill Stein
CWR Headlines: Listen
Today's CWR Headlines feature an interview with ClimateProgress blogger Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress.
--Bush Deposits a Parting Gift on the Environment?s Doorstep
--Democrats Go to the Mat on Control over Energy and Commerce Committee - Building a Local Sustainable Economy that Works for All (28mb)
Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:33:53 -0600 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
As icecaps and global markets melt down, localism is rising up as a solution to our ecological and economic crises. United for a Fair Economy and Class Action, two national nonprofits based in Massachusetts that address the inequitable distribution of resources, are sponsoring a workshop entitled "Building a Local Economy that Works for All." Today, we speak with Class Action Executive Director and United for a Fair Economy co-founder Felice Yeskel, and current United for a Fair Economy Board Chair Prakash Laufer about how the workshop weaves together economic, social, class, and environmental solutions to build a local sustainable economy. We at CWR have spoken with Felice in the past about her book, Economic Apartheid in America. Prakash is former CEO of Motherwear, a catalog company providing clothing for breastfeeding mothers that he co-founded in part on the principles of PROUT, or progressive utilization theory, which envisions a post-capitalist economy that is sustainable and just.
Listen
Class Action
United for a Fair Economy
Building a Local Economy that Works for All
Listen to more of our interview with Felice Yeskel and Prakash Laufer
February 15, 2006 CWR w/Felice Yeskel and Sam Pizzigati: "Economic Apartheid and Excessive Executive Compensation"
CWR Headlines: Listen
"Barack Obama -- a Sustainable President?"
--The Carbon Footprint of Obama's Campaign
--Obama May Put Renewable-Energy Plan Ahead of Climate Package
--Obama's potential green team
CWR ViewPoint: Listen
On September 26, 2008, Nicolas Sarkozy,president of France and the European Union, said, "we must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods.? On October 22, US President George Bush announced that Bretton Woods II, as it was called, would be held in Washington DC on November 15. The new summit seeks to fix the broken economic order created at the summit of world leaders held in a small New Hampshire ski town as World War II wound down. In today's ViewPoint, we speak with Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets about her recent CSRwire commentary, "Advice for Summitteers on Reforming the Global Casino." This continues our series with Hazel commenting on the market meltdown.
Hazel Henderson
Ethical Markets
"Advice for Summitteers on Reforming the Global Casino"
Foreign Exchange Transaction System
United Nations Security Insurance Agency
Bretton Woods II - Joe Romm Compares Presidential Platforms on Environment and Energy (28mb)
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:36:44 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
We reported last week that Barack Obama will regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act if elected. Not so for John McCain. Today writer and scientist Joseph Romm wrote on his blog Climate Progess, that a McCain-Palin administration would use a voluntary or incentive-based approach, one that "has never worked in any country to restrain emissions growth." Today, we talk to Joe Romm about how Barack Obama and John McCain differ on their approaches to the climate crisis and alternative energy. Romm is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he maintains its blog, Climate Progress. It was named one of the top 15 green websites by Time Magazine. Romm is also the author of the 2006 book Hell and High Water: Global Warming--the Solution and the Politics--and What We Should Do. He was Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy during the Clinton Administration.
Listen
Joe Romm
Climate Progress blog
CWR Headlines: Listen
--BPA is OK -- According to a Chemical-Friendly FDA
--Scientists Blast FDA report on BPA Safety
--Phthalate-Laden Toys Flooding the Market
--The Other Debt Crisis -- How we're Overspending Our Ecological Budget - Hazel Henderson on the Post-Wall Street Shift from a Global Casino to a Sustainable Economy (28mb)
Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:45:20 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
You could see the global market meltdown coming a mile away, according to futurist Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets. She's been identifying fatal flaws in the global economy, and sustainable alternatives, for three decades. Her most recent commentary on CSRwire critiques the "fractional reserve banking system," which allows banks to lend 10 times the amount of money they actually have in reserves. In other words, money for nothing. Today, CWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon speak with Henderson about using the financial crisis as an opportunity to shift to a more sustainable economy.
Listen
Hazel Henderson
Ethical Markets
Hazel Henderson Commentary: "And We All Thought That Banks Had Money!"
Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators
American Monetary Institute
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Media Gang Up on Prospects for a Green Economy
--New Report Says Political Will for Dealing with Climate Change Will Grow
--Obama Promises to Classify CO2 as a Pollutant if Elected
Listen to the extended interview with Mark Fulton, Global Head of Climate Change Investment Research for Deutsche Asset Management - Lester Brown's Plan B 3.0 for Mobilizing to Save Civilization (27mb)
Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:11:13 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Plan A -- the business-as-usual, free-market, capitalist economy -- is clearly breaking down, causing meltdowns of global markets AND polar icecaps. Time for Plan B. That's the title of the book by Earth Policy Institute Founding President Lester Brown, published five years ago. In it, he proposes an alternative economic model for "Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble," according to the subtitle. An updated version 2.0 came out two years ago, and earlier this year, Brown unveiled Plan B 3.0, this time subtitled "Mobilizing to Save Civilization."
Listen
Lester Brown
Earth Policy Institute
Worldwatch Institute State of the World reports, which include a chapter on "Investing for Sustainability" by CWR co-host Bill Baue.
CWR Headlines: Listen
--The Global Financial Blues Could Be Good for Going Green -- or Not
--A Carbon Tax Would Cut Emissions Better Than Cap-and-Trade
--Shade-Grown Coffee Could Soften the Blow of Climate Change - Envisioning the Future of Sustainability (28mb)
Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:29:03 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Yogi Berra said that. He also said, the future ain't what it used to be. For Glen Hiemstra, the future holds the key to current planning. The founder of the website futurist.com, Hiemstra consults for businesses and governments on how to take the long view on trends. In his book, Turning the Future into Revenue, he argues that the planning horizon should stretch out for several decades in order to meet the sustainability challenges we face right now.
Listen
Glen Hiemstra
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Google Unveils Clean Energy Plan
--Starbucks Accused of Wasting Water, Explores Alternatives
--Palin Stretches the Truth on Darfur Divestment - David Cay Johnston on the Bank Bailout as Corporate Socialism (26mb)
Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:16:45 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
The meltdown on Wall Street has many people asking, how come the government can find hundreds of billions to bailout the guys who brought us this mess--but always claims there's no money to save homeowners from foreclosure, provide health insurance to those who can't afford it, or clean up the environment? Today's guest David Cay Johnston says it's all part of an endemic pattern of "corporate welfare", where government policy is rigged to benefit the richest Americans at the expense of the rest of us. Johnston's latest book is Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). Johnston was an investigative journalist for the New York Times before becoming an independent reporter. He won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code.
Listen
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Millions of new green jobs could light up a gloomy economic horizon
-- The devil?s in the details on the bailout bill?s CEO pay provisions
--Al Gore wants you to commit civil disobedience -- to save us from climate collapse - The Road to Economic Recovery: Potholed, or Paved in Green? (29mb)
Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:27:04 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
The market meltdown is spurring an urgent response from Congress, with both houses debating and revising versions of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill on an hourly basis. The bill revises the President's proposed bailout of financial institutions, which some call "Cash for Trash." CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue interview US Representative (D-MA) Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee that is now ushering the Troubled Asset Relief Program bill, or TARP, through Congress. While many question whether this bailout is the best path out of the market meltdown, others are proposing a road to recovery paved in green. Bob Pollin of the Political Economy Research Institute co-authored a report on the Green Recovery that was released last week with the Center for American Progress. Francesca and Bill interviewed him here at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst the day after he testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming at a hearing entitled "The Green Road to Economic Recovery."
Listen
Representative Barney Frank
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill as of 1:09 p.m. on September 22, 2008
Bob Pollin
Green Recovery
House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing: "The Green Road to Economic Recovery"
Listen to the full 25-minute interview with Bob Pollin
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read
Commentary from futurist Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets on the market meltdown called Chicago Boys' Curse Comes Home to Wall Street.
Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets. - Barney Frank on the TARP: Troubled Asset Relief Program (Special Preview) (14mb)
Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:38:10 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
In this special preview edition of this week's show, CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue interview US Representative (D-MA) Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee that is now ushering the Troubled Asset Relief Program bill, or TARP, through Congress. The bill revises the President's proposed bailout of financial institutions to the tune of $1 trillion, which has been labeled "Cash for Trash." The bill is changing practically by the hour, and we caught Rep Frank today as the bill makes its way toward debate in Congress.
Listen
Representative Barney Frank
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill as of 1:09 p.m. on September 22, 2008
Check back and tune in Wednesday for the full show, which will include this interview, as well as a conversation with Bob Pollin of the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in his new Green Recovery report, and the CWR ViewPoint from futurist Hazel Henderson of Ethical Markets on the market meltdown. - Market Meltdown (29mb)
Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:58:39 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
We woke up this week to find Lehman Brothers, the venerable bank founded over a century ago, belly up, and Merrill Lynch merged with Bank of America in a shot-gun wedding. And late last night, the Fed announced it had taken control the mega-insurer American International Group, or AIG. As the subprime meltdown continues, it feels as if the market is crumbling around us. What caused this crisis, and where do we go from here? To address these questions, we speak with three experts. Economics Professor Jim Crotty of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst explains the underpinnings of the problem. Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Executive Director Laura Berry talks about how the faith-based lens exposed problems in predatory subprime lending a decade-and-a-half ago. And independent economic analyst Chris Martenson gazes into his crystal ball to project the likely trajectory of the credit crisis.
Listen
Laura Berry of ICCR
Chris Martenson
Jim Crotty of the University of Massachusetts
Extended interview with Jim Crotty: part 1 and part two.
In place of CWR headlines, this week we hear extended comments from Steve Adamske, communications director of the House Financial Services Committee, about Chair Barney Frank's plan to create a new federal entity to oversee government management of companies collapsing due to mortgage debt.
Frank Says Financial Crisis May Call for Government Entity - Michael Conroy on Activist Campaigns and the Certification Revolution -- Rebroadcast (27mb)
Thu, 11 Sep 2008 11:17:21 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
This week CWR rebroadcasts a show from earlier this year that got great feedback. CWR co-host Bill Baue spoke with Michael Conroy, author of Branded! How the "Certification Revolution" is Transforming Global Corporations. Conroy discusses how activist campaigning for improved corporate social and environmental practices has gotten companies to respond. The two sides moved from antagonism to tense collaboration in the creation of certification schemes that solved activist concerns while preserving--and often boosting--companies' profitability. Conroy brings a hands-on view to the story as a program officer at the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Brothers Fund, where he helped fund the activists NGOs as well as the resulting certification processes. He also serves as chair of TransFair, the Fair Trade certifying body in the US, as well as serving on the board of Forest Stewardship Council, which certifies lumber and paper practices.
Listen
Michael Conroy
SeaChange store
CWR Headlines: Listen
--The Bush Administration Rushes to Weaken Workplace Health and Safety
--UN Climate Panel Reaches Out to Business to Green the Economy
--New Report Says Fish Can Be Farmed Sustainably - The Billionaires' Club -- and the Rest of Us (29mb)
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:59:20 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
In June, the Century Foundation and the The New York Times Foundation invited Corporate Watchdog Radio to a seminar for a select handful of journalists on "Billionaires and Their Impact." There, CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon heard Chuck Collins speak on a panel about the "Billionaires' Club" and the impact of extreme wealth on the rest of us. A co-founder of United for a Fair Economy and a senior fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Collins wrote the lead article in a special issue of The Nation on "The New Inequality" that helped frame the seminar.
Listen
Chuck Collins
ExtremeInequality.org
"The Rich and the Rest of Us" by John Cavanagh and Chuck Collins in the June 30 edition of The Nation
The Century Foundation and New York Times Foundation Seminar: Billionaires and Their Impact
Chuck Collins' Century Founation Presentation -- The Billionaires' Club: Taxation of Accumulated Wealth
CWR Headlines: Listen
--California Bails on Bisphenol-A Ban
--Companies Calculating Carbon Toe-Prints
--CEO Pay Continues to Soar -- at Taxpayer Expense
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read.
The ViewPoint from BEN -- the Business Ethics Network -- comes from Bjorn Claeson of Sweatfree Communities about its recent report, Subsidizing Sweatshops: How our tax dollars fund the race to the bottom, and what cities and states can do.
Sweatfree Communities
- Political Will Required to Build a Green Economy (28mb)
Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:10:52 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
The Democratic party has shied away from linking clean energy, the economy, and the environment since Jimmy Carter's 1977 Energy Policy. But the political winds are changing. At Tuesday evening's Democratic National Convention, almost all of the speakers hit on the theme of green collar jobs. Nancy Floyd of Nth Power noted that there are 2.4 million green collar jobs worldwide -- but less than 10 percent are in US. Presumptive Democrat candidate Barack Obama's platform calls for more than doubling that number to 5 million green collar jobs in the US alone. And he's framing it as a win-win-win to get us off foreign oil, stop global warming, and create tons of green jobs in the US. This week, we feature the second part of our conversation with Bracken Hendricks, co-author with Congressman Jay Inslee of Apollo's Fire, and co-founder of the Apollo Alliance. The discussion focuses on the political will required to build a green economy.
Listen
Bracken Hendricks
Apollo Alliance
Barack Obama's New Energy Platform
DNC speech by Nancy Floyd of Nth Power
Jimmy Carter's 1977 Energy Policy
Green Jobs: Towards Sustainable Work in a Low-Carbon World report by the Worldwatch Institute as part of the UNEP- ILO- ITUC Green Jobs Initiative
Job Opportunities for the Green Economy report from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Joe Biden's Got Environmental Creds
--Google.org Pumps Money into Geothermal Energy
--Buffett and Gates Visit Tar Sands
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read
Conrad MacKerron of the As You Sow Foundation comments on the labor and human rights implications of greening the supply chain.
Prius Envy and the Greening of Wal-Mart: A Blind Spot for the Human Cost - Green Collar Jobs Build the Clean Energy Economy (28mb)
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:51:29 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Climate change, racial discrimination, and economic recession may seem impossible to solve. But building a green economy could do the trick. The beauty of the green economy is that it could tackle all these problems at the same time. But only if labor is a driving force behind it. And that's beginning to happen. Green collar jobs build a clean energy infrastructure. They're hard to outsource because most of the work, like weatherizing homes, happens on-site. Advocates are working to make the green workforce more racially inclusive. And incomes could rise as demand grows for workers left out of the oil-based economy. Today we speak with 2 of the most prominent advocates for green collar jobs and the green economy. Today, we speak with Bracken Hendricks, author of Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy. and co-founder of the Apollo Alliance, a coalition of business, labor, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a green economy. We also hear from Van Jones, founder of Green For All, an initiative seeking to lift 250,000 people out of poverty through green-collar jobs.
Listen
Bracken Hendricks
Apollo Alliance
Van Jones
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Burying Carbon from "Clean Coal" Increases Pollution -- But a New Process Can Turn Carbon Emissions Into Toothpaste - Reducing Poverty and Protecting the Environment: Can the World Bank Do Both? (14mb)
Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:43:42 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
The World Bank Group's mission is to reduce poverty. The Bank also works toward environmental sustainability. What's the link between them, and does its practice on the ground promote both priorities? That's the question posed by the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group or IEG in a recent audit of the Bank's funding projects. The results? Disappointing. CWR co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue speak with Vinod Thomas, Director-General of the IEG about the report. The IEG is producing a follow-up report focusing directly on the effectiveness of the the World Bank Group's environmental and social sustainability safeguards and standards.
Listen
Vinod Thomas
Environmental Sustainability: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Support
CWR Headlines: Listen.
--Russian-Georgian War Could Mean a New Cold War Between Russia and the West
--Wal-Mart Wants to Keep Green Definitions Fuzzy
Web Extra: Full interview with Peter Zeihan of Stratfor on the Russia-Georgia War
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read
Steve Herz comments on how International Finance Corporation social standards fail to protect against human rights abuses. Herz recently co-authored a report on the human rights performance of the International Finance Corporation?s Performance Standards and the Equator Principles. The analysis was conducted in partnership with the World Resources Institute, the Center for International Environmental Law, the Bank Information Center, BankTrack, and Oxfam Australia. Herz practices international, environmental, and human rights law in Oakland, CA.
The International Finance Corporation?s Performance Standards and the Equator Principles: Respecting Human Rights and Remedying Violations? - Javatrekker Dean Cycon Traverses the World of Fair Trade Coffee (28mb)
Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:14:46 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Dean Cycon has long believed in using business to promote social justice, and Fair Trade is his bailiwick. As founder and CEO of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee, he's helped small coffee farmers around the world get a fairer price for their product. From Papua New Guinea to Peru, he's helped farmers build cooperatives and establish educational and health programs for their families. And perhaps most importantly, he's listened to them -- the stories of their lives and their work. He's put his experiences together in a terrific book called Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, which won a 2008 Gold Medal for best travel book from the online magazine, Independent Publisher.
Listen
Dean's Beans
2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal for Travel Essays: Javatrekker
Grist post by Eric Hofner of the Orion Grassroots Network: "Grassroots globalization: Dean's Beans founder on the good effects of trade" (see comments thread about this CWR show)
CWR Headlines
--Final Round of WTO Doha Talks Collapse
CWR ViewPoint
Brian Campbell of International Labor Rights Forum comments on the plight of cocoa farmers and workers.
International Labor Rights Forum - Marketing Before Medicine: Drug Companies Gamble with Our Health (26mb)
Wed, 30 Jul 2008 13:43:29 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Every five minutes, another American dies from taking their prescription medicine ? as prescribed. Kids as young as preschoolers are taking powerful prescription drugs, like Ritalin and antipsychotics, whose safety has never been tested in children. And doctors are on the take, feted at junkets costing thousands of dollars, paid tens of thousands to sign their names to articles written by drug company marketers, and pressured to give the newest, least tested drugs to their patients instead of cheaper, safer and effective older ones. They've also created new illnesses out of common human conditions ? like shyness or heartburn ? so they can push more drugs into the marketplace. Today, CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks with Melody Petersen about her book, Our Daily Meds. The book's subtitle says it all: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs.
Listen
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Malaria drugs cheaper thanks to Clinton Foundation effort with some drug companies
--New law bans Burmese gem imports
--Pax World settles with SEC for violating its own social screening rules
--US Army to cut its carbon "bootprint" - Sunshine is the Best Disinfectant: Shareholder Activists Promote Corporate Transparency (27mb)
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:21:40 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously said, "Sunshine is the best disinfectant." Shareholder activists have long promoted transparency in corporate reporting. Now, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) acknowledges its rules governing company disclosures aren't good enough. So FASB is proposing new rules. Today, we speak with Corporate Watchdog Radio co-founder Sanford Lewis about his shareholder activism promoting better corporate disclosure on environmental and human health risks. Lewis, who serves as general counsel for the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN), identifies several strengths -- as well as some disconcerting weaknesses -- in the proposed rules. IEHN has issued an action alert outlining these strengths and weaknesses to guide submissions during the public comment period ending August 8.
Listen
Investor Environmental Health Network
SocialFunds article with interview transcript
Video excerpt of CWR interview with Sanford Lewis
IEHN Action Alert on FASB Rulemaking
FASB Exposure Draft on "Disclosure of Certain Loss Contingencies"
CWR Headlines: Listen
--US Chamber of Commerce Wants to Curb Shareholder Activism
--European Shareholder Activists Go After Executive Pay
--World Bank Critical of Its Own Environmental Impact
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read.
Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, comments on toxics in cosmetics. Malkan points out that companies are allowed to label products ?natural? or ?organic? and still use harmful synthetics. Her award-winning book, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (New Society, 2007), tells the inside story of the campaign?s five-year effort to hold the beauty industry accountable to women?s health.
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics - The Community-Building Power of Wind (28mb)
Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:24:00 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
When it comes to renewable energy, wind is taking the lead--at least at this stage of technological development. But what's the best model for developing it? Should we follow the centralized utility model with big wind farms set up in a few places -- offshore Massachusetts or the state of Texas -- and then send the juice over wires to power homes and businesses far away? That's the dominant model in the US. Or should we follow the community-owned wind power model, where the people using the power have a financial stake in it, too? Maybe a healthy mix of both would be best. Today, CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks with Dan Juhl of Juhl Wind Development, which is helping communities around the country develop locally owned wind power cooperatives. The company has developed about 140 megawatts -- or several hundred million dollars worth -- of community-based wind projects. Francesca met him at the Sustainable Energy Summit at the University of Massachusetts in June. And Rheannon speaks with journalist Elizabeth Kolbert. Her recent New Yorker article, "The Island in the Wind," profiles the Danish island of Samso, known internationally as the "renewable energy island" because residents get most of their power from windmills they cooperatively own.
Listen
Juhl Wind Development
Community-Based Energy Development
Dan Juhl interview transcript on SocialFunds: "It Takes a Village to Raise a Turbine: Making the Case for Community-Owned Windpower"
Sustainable Energy Summit
Complete interview with Dan Juhl
Elizabeth Kolbert: "The Island in the Wind"
CWR Headlines: Listen
--The US can achieve 20 percent energy from wind by 2030 with help from GE and T. Boone Pickens
Updates: --European parliament votes to include aviation emissions in Emissions Trading Scheme
--EPA report links climate change to human health risks, but Bush blocks GHG emissions regulation under Clean Air Act - New Generations in Sustainability (27mb)
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:37:01 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Each generation reinvents the world inherited from the previous generation. A new generation is inheriting a wounded planet and a dysfunctional economy. Youthful energy seeks to heal our world and revitalize our economy using new strategies and adapting existing tools. Today, we focus on new generations in sustainability. First, we hear from Tim Cohen-Mitchell of the Young Entrepreneurs Society in Orange, Massachusetts, from a presentation he made at the recent Pioneer Valley Sustainable Investing Summit that Corporate Watchdog Radio helped organize. Then, CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks with Jeremy Daw about the BioTour, an initiative brainstormed by an enterprising group of 20-somethings at Burning Man, an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The BioTour is about to embark on a journey across the US in a biofuel bus to raise awareness on sustainability.
Listen
Young Entrepreneurs Society
Tim Cohen-Mitchell's complete presentation and Q&A
BioTour
Burning Man
CWR Headlines: Listen
--WWF to G8: ?Your Climate Solution is ?Pathetic??
--Senate May Subpoena White House for Ignoring EPA Carbon Warnings
--Toyota Responds to Report on Labor Abuses on Prius Production Line
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read (thanks to our partner CSRwire for posting the text of CWR commentaries)
Robin Giampa tells about Timberland?s trendsetting use of social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube to advance its corporate sustainability initiatives.
Timberland's Earthkeepers
Francesca and Bill ain't exactly spring chickens, but we've got a lot of youthful energy, so we're joining this trend in linking social networking with corporate sustainability by launching CWR pages on Facebook and MySpace this week. Thanks to our new intern, Tom Hartmann-Boyce, an international affairs student at Skidmore, for getting those pages up and running. Check out our website for links to these pages, and join us there as "friends."
CWR's MySpace page
CWR's Facebook page - The Myth of Clean Coal (27mb)
Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:31:40 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Utilities and coal companies are pushing to open over a hundred new coal-fired power plants in the US. But activists, investors, communities, consumers, and scientists are pointing to financial, regulatory, environmental, and social risks that far outweigh the potential benefits of coal. And they are pulling back the veil from the myth of clean coal, exposing that king coal is a naked emperor. Carbon capture and storage, the key to coal's "clean" claims, has years of technical and economic hurdles to cross. Leslie Lowe, director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibilty's Energy & Environment Program, speaks with us today about the risks of committing to a future of new coal plants.
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Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
ICCR Report: Don't Get Burned: The Risks of Investing in New Coal-Fired Generating Facilities
New York City Comptroller letter asking Department of Energy to review tax-exempt status of bonds for new coal plants
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Airlines Flying to and From Europe Will Have to Pay for Emissions
--Coal plants get thumbs up -- and thumbs down
--Leading Climate Scientist calls Coal and Oil CEO's Criminals
--Clean coal gets a boost from the US Dept of Energy
James Hansen Congressional testimony: Global Warming Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read (Thanks to our partner CSRwire for posting text of CWR commentaries.)
Yochi Zakai of Co-op America points out that clean coal is dirtier than it's cracked up to be. He comments on the recent Georgia court ruling against a new coal plant proposed by Dynegy, and Co-op America's ongoing activism aimed at that company and others in the industry.
Co-op America "Stop the Coal Rush" Campaign - Bob Monks: ExxonMobil Exemplifies Corpocracy (28mb)
Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:57:18 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
The ExxonMobil annual shareholder meeting this year carried high expectations from shareholder activists. Members of the Rockefeller family, descending from the founder of the Standard Oil monopoly that splintered into Exxon and Mobil, attended the meeting to support four different shareholder resolutions on corporate governance and climate change. Of these four, the resolution supported by most Rockefellers asked the company to split the CEO and Board Chair positions. Today's CWR guest, Bob Monks, has filed this resolution at ExxonMobil since the early 2000s. His struggle to hold ExxonMobil accountable exemplifies the broader struggle to hold corporations accountable described in his new book, Corpocracy. Monks is co-founder of Institutional Shareholder Services, The Corporate Library, Lens Governance Advisors, and a former Labor Department official in the Reagan Administration.
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Bob Monks' Website
Corpocracy: How CEOs and the Business Roundtable Hijacked the World's Greatest Wealth Machine -- And How to Get It Back
Web extra: Bob Monks chats with CWR co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon about the US presidential candidates' ability to take on corpocracy. Listen
CWR Headlines: Listen
--ExxonMobil loses appeal to Supreme Court on human rights abuse case
CWR ViewPoint: Listen or read (Thanks to our partner CSRwire for posting text of CWR commentaries.)
Longtime shareholder activist Steve Viederman presented this statement at the ExxonMobil Annual Meeting in May 2008 to introduce resolution 19 asking Exxon to adopt a renewable energy policy. He filed the resolution along with other individuals, families, foundations and religious orders, joined by 20 institutional investors worth over $740 billion in combined assets, including Exxon Mobil stock valued at more than $8.6 billion.
Steve Viederman Bio - Raj Patel on the Global Food Crisis (28mb)
Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:44:59 -0500 Author: noreply@blogger.com (Sanford Lewis)
Last week, the price of corn rose above $7 a bushel on the commodities market for the first time, and soybeans rose sharply, too, reacting to the harsh weather hampering crop production across the US Midwest. Soaring global demand in addition to the increased use of corn for ethanol, an alternative fuel, have shrunk the worldwide supply of staples that are the core of practically every continent's diet. Meanwhile, the price of oil has jumped, raising the cost of producing crops and feeding livestock and causing an increase in grocery bills here and abroad, sparking riots and protests in at least two dozen countries. CWR co-host Francesca Rheannon speaks about this global food crisis with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved. Patel is a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and a researcher with the Land Research Action Network as well as the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
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Stuffed and Starved
CWR Headlines: Listen
--Floods may cause famine and food prices to rise
--Workers illegally trafficked from india call off hunger strike
--Green collar jobs grow bullish despite global credit crunch
--Cashew nuts fight global warming
CWR Viewpoint: Listen or read (Thanks to our partner CSRwire for posting text of CWR commentaries.)
Dean Cycon of Dean's Beans Organic Fair Trade Coffee Company comments on the link between climate change and coffee as experienced by indigenous Arhuaco coffee farmer Javier Mestres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Colombia.
Dean's Beans
Dean Cycon: Will Coffee Be a Casualty of Climate Change?
