Go Green Radio

The EPA set legal limits on nitrate levels in 1962 to prevent acute cases of methemoglobinemia, which causes an infant to suffer from oxygen deprivation in the blood after ingesting excessive nitrate. More recent studies have found correlations to additional human health risks. An Environmental Working Group (EWG) investigation found that nitrate contamination in drinking water has grown steadily worse. Data obtained under public records laws shows that between 2003 and 2017, tests detected elevated levels of nitrate in the tap water supplies of more than 4,000 community water systems in California, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. Those water systems supply tap water for more than 45 million Americans. Tune in as we discuss this new report with EWG Senior Economic Analyst, Anne Weir Schechinger.

Prior to the pandemic (and hopefully soon thereafter), most kids spend the majority of their waking hours at school. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) has a significant impact on a student’s ability to learn. Classrooms with polluted air, high CO2 levels, and poor lighting can make it difficult for students to learn even if they have the best teachers, most current technology, and a positive attitude about school. On today’s episode we will talk with Shannon Oliver, MPH about a project his school district undertook to measure the IEQ of their campuses alongside students armed with the knowledge, guidance, and tools they needed to use their school buildings as a teaching tool.

Our guest today is Cory Long, founder and Executive Director of the Making a Change Group in Chester, PA, a community just outside Philadelphia. If you look at Chester from the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas (formerly the Food Desert Locator), you will see it is objectively a Food Desert. If you look at Chester from the EPA’s environmental justice screening and mapping tool, you will see it is an Environmental Justice community. So what does an effective, local community organization do to help residents, especially when a crisis like COVID-19 emerges? Tune in and find out because Cory Long’s blueprint is phenomenal!

Author, Paul Wheaton has come out with a wonderful book on making a huge, positive, global difference from your own home! Prioritize comfort over sacrifice while saving thousands of dollars. Explore dozens of solutions and their impacts on carbon footprint, petroleum footprint, toxic footprint, and other environmental issues. Tune in as we talk with Paul about his new book, Building a Better World in Your Backyard!

The pandemic has put the world in a heightened state of anxiety, but there were already underlying signs of trouble before COVID-19 hit. Suicides are at their highest point in 50 years, record numbers of Americans are taking medication for anxiety and depression, and opioids kill more people in the U.S. than car crashes. Dr. Margaret Klein Salamon’s new book, Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, makes the case that climate change inaction is the root cause for the hopelessness that so many people are feeling. Tune in as we talk with Dr. Salamon about her new book.

Nearly 70 percent of the fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful chemical pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) 2020 Dirty Dozen™. EWG’s newly released consumer guide outlines the produce items with the most amount of pesticide residue, as well as a list of the fruits and vegetables with the least amount. Tune in as we talk with EWG toxicologists, Dr. Alexis Temkin and Dr. Thomas Galligan about the information you need to make the best choices in the produce section of your grocery store.

Tune in as we talk with Janine Benyus about how she has helped some of the world’s top companies design for the future by drawing inspiration from 3.8 billion years of nature’s blueprint. Benyus has worked with companies like Boeing, Colgate-Palmolive, Nike, General Electric, Herman Miller, HOK architects, IDEO, Interface, Natura, Procter and Gamble, Levi’s, Kohler, and General Mills to create sustainable product designs. In 2010, BusinessWeek named Janine one of the World’s Most Influential Designers, and her work in biomimicry has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, Esquire, The Economist, Time, Wired, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Nature, and more.

Farmland dominates the landscape and watersheds in the Midwest. The way that land is used and managed has profound effects on our health through the water we drink and the food we eat. Farming can actually make water cleaner and the environment healthier. Farms doing exactly that are scattered across the Midwest. Tune in to learn how the Environmental Working Group’s Midwest division is using remote-sensing, big data and landscape analysis to build pressure to change policy to heal the damage done by poor farming practices and to build excitement about how much healthier the environment could be through often simple changes in the way we farm.

Biomimicry is a practice that learns from and mimics the strategies used by species alive today. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies — new ways of living — that solve our greatest design challenges sustainably. The Biomimicry Institute was founded in 2006 by Janine Benyus and Bryony Schwan to share nature’s design lessons with the people who design and make our world, and empower people to create nature-inspired solutions for a healthy planet. Today we’ll talk with the Executive Director of the Biomimicry Institute, Beth Rattner.

Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization—a powerful and efficient network of 200 food banks across the country. As food insecurity rates hold steady at the highest levels ever, the Feeding America network of food banks has risen to meet the need. They feed 40 million people at risk of hunger, including 12 million children and 7 million seniors. But Feeding America also works to alleviate hunger with a focus on sustainability and environmental justice. Today we will discuss their work in America’s Food Deserts, as well as their work to keep edible food from going to waste.

CR Vasco da Gama (CRVG)—one of Brazil’s top football (soccer) teams—partnered with social impact startup VeganNation to promote sustainability initiatives within the sports industry. In recent months, VeganNation has gathered sports partners across Brazil—including soccer teams Remo, Paysandu, Iranduba, and Nacional Club, which are located near the Amazon rainforest, and legendary soccer player Cafu—to help it bring awareness and solutions to the waste generated by the global sporting industry. Tune in as we speak with Isaac Thomas, co-founder and CEO of VeganNation about his company and how you can join the movement!

California has a compelling need to reduce pollutant emissions to reach health-based ambient air quality goals. The South Coast Air Quality Management District and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District are currently in extreme non-attainment of the eight-hour federal ozone standard, and in non-attainment for the 24-hour PM2.5 standard. A recent study found that converting medium and heavy duty transportation vehicles to electricity would not only dramatically reduce air pollution, but would also create more jobs than vehicles that run on other fuels. Tune in as we discuss the study with Eileen Tutt, Executive Director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition and Simon Mui, Senior Scientist, Climate & Clean Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently released his proposed 2020-21 budget, securing critical ongoing support for schools and farmers to collectively advance local, climate-smart procurement, education, and experiential learning in school gardens. The Governor is advocating for more freshly prepared California-grown meals on students’ plates, more training opportunities for food service staff, and more opportunities to engage and educate students about where their food comes from and how it reaches the table. The Center for Ecoliteracy worked in close partnership with a coalition of allied organizations to advance this level of targeted funding and increased investment in school nutrition, labor, and farms. On today’s episode, we’ll talk with Adam Kesselman, Executive Director of the Center for Ecoliteracy about why this is good news for California students!

Today we’ll be joined by Sydney Evans, Science Analyst with the Environmental Working Group, to discuss PFAS, a.k.a. “forever chemicals”, which has been found in municipal water supplies across the U.S. Join us as we discuss the health effects of this family of toxins and steps you can take to protect your family.

Our guest today is Seth Terry, Ph.D, head of Customer Experience at Emporia Energy, and we’ll be talking about their new residential energy monitoring device, Vue. The Vue is a low-cost solution that helps consumers track home energy use at the individual appliance level. The user-friendly app helps you see what appliances are contributing most to your monthly energy bill, and helps you take real-time action to conserve energy with a click on your smart phone. Tune in to learn more about this simple way to save money, time and energy!

Our guest today is Gamal Sherif, Program Manager for Texas-based nonprofit, EcoRise. We will discuss a new program to help high school students attain LEED, Green Associate credential through the U.S. Green Building Council. This credential is recognized as an international standard of green building concept knowledge on topics such as indoor air quality, water efficiency, energy efficiency and much more. EcoRise is working with high school teachers and their students to create a workforce that is ready to create 21st century buildings that are healthier for occupants and the environment. Tune in to learn how to bring this fantastic program to a high school near you!

Never worry about a power outage again. Panasonic Solar has a new solution for consumers who want an eco-friendly, energy independent home: EverVolt™. This new residential energy storage system can be tailored to a homeowner's individual needs, offering both AC and DC coupled options, as well as options to scale down to as little as 5.7kWh of energy storage or expanded to 34.2kWh. Tune in as we talk with Dan Glaser, senior sales engineer for Panasonic!

In the upcoming motion picture, Dark Waters, actor Mark Ruffalo plays the character inspired by Robert Bilott, a lawyer specializing in helping big corporations stay on the right side of environmental laws and regulations. His life took an unexpected turn when a West Virginia farmer named Earl Tennant called. He was convinced his cattle were being poisoned by runoff from a neighboring DuPont landfill. Rob ultimately gains access to hundreds of thousands of pages of DuPont documents that reveal the company has been holding onto decades of studies proving the harmful effects of a chemical called PFOA, used in making Teflon. More toxic than lead, PFOA is often called a “forever chemical,” because once it gets inside the human body, it remains there, building up faster than the body can excrete it. What starts as the case of one farmer soon spawns a shocking realization that virtually every person on the planet has been exposed to PFOA and carries the chemical in his or her blood.

Energy efficiency is the fastest-growing segment of U.S. energy-sector employment, now employing more than 2.3 million Americans, according to a new analysis from E4TheFuture and the national, nonpartisan business group E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs). Energy efficiency workers now account for 28% of all U.S. energy jobs. The new report, Energy Efficiency Jobs in America, finds energy efficiency jobs grew 3.4 percent in 2018 –more than double the rate of growth for overall jobs nationwide — with 7.8% growth projected for 2019. Not a single state saw declines in energy efficiency employment in 2018. Tune in as we discuss the report with energy efficiency experts from Lever Energy Capital, Energy Optimizers, E2, and E4TheFuture!

Paul Rosolie is a naturalist, explorer, author, and award-winning wildlife filmmaker. For the past decade he has specialized in threatened ecosystems and species in countries like Indonesia, Brazil, India, and Peru.. He has also spent extensive time traveling with poachers documenting the illegal trade in endangered species. Rosolie’s memoir on Amazonian wildlife and exploration, Mother of God, was hailed as “gripping” by Jane Goodall, and the Wall Street Journal applauded Rosolie’s environmental call-to-arms for its “rare immediacy and depth.” His conservation writing has appeared in National Geographic, The Huffington Post and The Guardian. In 2013, Rosolie spoke at the United Nations global Forum on Forests while accepting an award for his Amazonian wildlife short-film An Unseen World. His latest book, “The Girl and the Tiger” is already being hailed as the 21st Century Jungle Book.