31 episodes

Produced by Global Justice Ecology Project, Breaking Green is a podcast that talks with activists and experts to examine the intertwined issues of social, ecological and economic injustice. Breaking Green also explores some of the more outrageous proposals to address climate and environmental crises that are falsely being sold as green. But we can't do it without you! We accept no corporate sponsors, and rely on people like you to make Breaking Green possible.If you'd like to donate,  text GIVE to 716-257-4187 or donate online at: https://globaljusticeecology.org/Donate-to-Breaking-Green (select apply my donation to "Breaking Green Podcast")

Breaking Green Global Justice Ecology Project / Host Steve Taylor

    • Science
    • 5.0 • 8 Ratings

Produced by Global Justice Ecology Project, Breaking Green is a podcast that talks with activists and experts to examine the intertwined issues of social, ecological and economic injustice. Breaking Green also explores some of the more outrageous proposals to address climate and environmental crises that are falsely being sold as green. But we can't do it without you! We accept no corporate sponsors, and rely on people like you to make Breaking Green possible.If you'd like to donate,  text GIVE to 716-257-4187 or donate online at: https://globaljusticeecology.org/Donate-to-Breaking-Green (select apply my donation to "Breaking Green Podcast")

    The Battle Against Eucalyptus in Galicia with Joam Evans Pim

    The Battle Against Eucalyptus in Galicia with Joam Evans Pim

    Terrible forest fires that are the result of eucalyptus plantations are becoming an increasing threat. Known as green deserts, these monoculture eucalyptus tree plantations are becoming more numerous as they are built to feed ever larger pulp and paper mills. They sapwater from the environment and destroy biodiversity. But there are those who are fighting the spread of this invasive species.

    On this episode of Breaking Green, we will talk with Joam Evans Pim. Pim is a commoner at the Froxan Community, located in Galicia, Spain, where he lives with his family. He is an activist in political, environmental, cultural and human rights issues, particularly focused on reinvigorating rural direct assembly democracy, defending and restoring common lands and confronting destructive mining and other environmentally degrading projects.

    He serves as director of the Montescola Foundation and is adjunct professor of peace and conflict research at Abo Akademi University, Finland, where he seasonally lectures on civil disobedience and non-violent action at the master's program on peace, mediation and conflict research.

    This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

    Breaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  

    Donate securely online here

    Or simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187

    • 32 min
    Failure of the GE American Chestnut with Anne Petermann and Dr. Donald Davis

    Failure of the GE American Chestnut with Anne Petermann and Dr. Donald Davis

    The American Chestnut Foundation has long supported a controversial plan to release genetically engineered chestnut trees into the wild.
     The Tree was being developed by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). 

    But now poor performance in field trials and the revelation that researchers had even been field testing the wrong tree prompted The American Chestnut Foundation to pull its support for the GE Tree. The American Chestnut Foundation has also called for SUNY-ESF to pull its application before the United States Department of Agriculture for deregulation of the tree.
    On this episode of Breaking Green, we spoke with Anne Petermann.  Petermann co- founded Global Justice Ecology Project in 2003.

    She is the international coordinator of the Campaign to STOP GE Trees, which she also co founded. Petermann is a founding board member of the Will Miller Social Justice Lecture Series. 

     She has been involved in movements for forest protection and indigenous rights since 1991, and the international and national climate justice movements since 2004. 
     She participated in the founding of the Durban group for climate justice in 2004, in Durban, South Africa, and Climate Justice Now in 2007 at the Bali Indonesia UN climate conference. 
     Anne Petermann was adopted as an honorary member of the St. Francis- Sokoki band of the Abenaki in 1992 for her work in support of their struggle for state recognition. In 2000, she received the wild nature award for activist of the year.

     We will also  talk with Dr. Donald Davis, author of the American Chestnut: an environmental history. His exhaustive book explores how the American Chestnut Tree has shaped history as well as the cultural and environmental significance of the once ubiquitous tree.

    He also calls the story of the American Chestnut, a cautionary tale of unintended consequences, and criticizes plans to conduct a massive and irreversible experiment by releasing genetically engineered American chestnuts into the wild.

    Davis is an independent scholar, author and former Fulbright fellow. He has authored or edited seven books. His book, Where There are Mountains: an environmental history of the southern Appalachians, won the prestigious Philip D. Reed environmental writing award. Davis was also the founding member of the Georgia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, serving as its president from 2005 to 2006. He is currently employed by the Harvard forest as a research scholar and lives in Washington DC.
     Don't miss an episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.

    This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

    Breaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  

    Donate securely online here

    Or simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187

    • 42 min
    Suppression in East Palestine Ohio With Scott Smith and Lesley Pacey

    Suppression in East Palestine Ohio With Scott Smith and Lesley Pacey

    On February 3rd 2023, a Norfolk Southern train carrying thousands of gallons of hazardous chemicals derailed. It was later set on fire in part to clear the tracks.


    Residents have reported illnesses that they believe are the result of exposure to the chemicals. Now complaints are growing that the government’s and EPA’s response has failed them.


    An independent testing expert who has been helping residents of East Palestine, Ohio better understand what they have been exposed to is being subpoenaed by Norfolk Southern in what has been described as an attempt to intimidate him.


    Also the Government Accountability Project, a storied whistleblower organization, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to shed light on what it believes could be censorship of citizen groups and residents attempting to share information on the East Palestine disaster.


    In this episode of Breaking Green, we will talk with Scott Smith, an independent testing expert and CEO of US BioSolutions LLC.  He frequently works on the ground in contamination events to help affected communities by investigating and bringing people together to diagnose and solve water contamination events. Smith has been to more than 60 oil and chemical disasters in the US and abroad. 


    He is a graduate of Baylor and Harvard business school. He was recently subpoenaed by Norfolk Southern regarding his work in East Palestine.


     We will also talk with Lesley Pacey, who is an environmental investigator with the Government Accountability Project. Her daughter Sarah was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4 in 2004. She is a cancer survivor, now 23 years old. While living on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, Lesley noticed several other children who had Leukemia.  Lesley demanded a study by the Alabama Department of Health that eventually identified a cancer cluster. 


    Recently she has focused on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, helping chemically exposed workers, residents and tourists with chronic health issues seek justice in the mass tort related to the disaster.


    She works with the Government Accountability Project to educate lawmakers and propose measures that will protect coastal communities from toxic chemical dispersants.


    Don't miss an episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.


    This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

    Breaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  

    Donate securely online here

    Or simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187

    Marilyn Leistner, who is mentioned in this episode was the last mayor of Times Beach Missouri, a town wiped off the map by dioxin contamination.

    FOR BACKGROUND ON TIMES BEACH VISIT:  TimesBeachMissouri.Com

    • 40 min
    Carbon Credits Driving Theft of Indigenous Lands with Fiore Longo of Survival International

    Carbon Credits Driving Theft of Indigenous Lands with Fiore Longo of Survival International

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), was held from November 30 to December 12 2023 in Dubai.  Described by some as the "Blood Carbon COP", COP 28 paved the way for a massive expansion of carbon credits.

    The carbon credit market is disastrous for Indigenous Peoples and represents a major new way for governments, corporations and conservation NGOs to profit from the theft of Indigenous lands.

    On this episode of Breaking Green we will talk with Fiore Longo of Survival International- an organization formed in 1969 to promote the rights of Indigenous Peoples as contemporary societies with a right to self-determination. 
    Fiore Longo is a campaigner at Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples and is the director of Survival International France and Spain. She also coordinates Survival’s conservation campaign, and has visited many communities in Africa and Asia that face human rights abuses in the name of conservation.

    Survival International's Blood Carbon Report

    Orin Langelle's Portraits of Struggle

    Don't miss an episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.

    This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

    Breaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  

    Donate securely online here

    Or simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187

    • 39 min
    Prepping Together for Climate Collapse with Dr. Tadzio Mueller

    Prepping Together for Climate Collapse with Dr. Tadzio Mueller

    Soon the attention of many environmentalists will be focused on the most recent UN Climate Conference in Dubai. But this in the 28th such conference and the climate crisis continues to worsen. What if Climate Collapse is inevitable?

    In this episode of Breaking Green we will talk with long-time global and climate justice activist Dr. Tadzio Mueller. Dr. Mueller is a political scientist and activist who runs the blog Peaceful Sabotage.


    He believes that there is no longer the possiblitly to avoid significant global warming benchmarks and that the physical and political realities necessitate a collapse of social systems in our not so distant future.

    Dr. Mueller claims we cannot abandon this unfortunate future to the fascist powers that will rise as world systems degrade.


    He has come under fire from fellow activists who claim his focus on prepping for a future of climate catastrophe is depressing and defeatist. 


    But he argues that there can be hope and meaning as we find a way to advance our own values and bring light, hope and love into the darkening landscape. He has recently traveled to Sweden to study the Prepping Together movement which he says can be a model for how we chose to respond.

    Dr. Mueller's blog is friedlicheSabotage.net 

    Don't miss an episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.

    This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

    Breaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  

    Donate securely online here
    Or simply text GIVE to 716-257-4187

    • 44 min
    Radiological Weapons Development and Pruitt Igoe Residents with Ben Phillips and Dr. Lisa Martino-Taylor

    Radiological Weapons Development and Pruitt Igoe Residents with Ben Phillips and Dr. Lisa Martino-Taylor

    The Pruitt Igoe housing complex in St. Louis that was built in the 1950s and infamously demolished in the 1970s has been touted by many as a cautionary tale against public housing projects. But its history is complex. In 2012 it was reported that Pruitt Igoe was in a region targeted by the Military for secret tests that were part of a radiological weapons development program. According to government documents obtained by sociologist and researcher Dr. Lisa Martino-Taylor, the Army referred to the test area a “Densely Populated Slum District.”

    Now Pruitt Igoe is back in national headlines. Ben Phillips and Chester Deans, both former residents of the Pruitt Igoe housing complex, are spearheading efforts to have the government recognize its wrong doing, release more information about the its covert actions, and compensate residents of Pruitt-Igoe and surrounding areas. They hope to have residents of the area added to a bill working its way through congress that seeks to compensate residents that were exposed to radiation during cold war era production of nuclear weapons in St. louis.

    In this episode of Breaking Green we will talk with Dr. Lisa Martino-Taylor, the sociologist and researcher who examined the St. Louis open-air experiments for her doctoral dissertation at the University of Missouri Columbia, and after more than a decade of research wrote a book called Behind the Fog: How the US Cold War Radiological Weapons Program Exposed Innocent Americans.

    We will also talk with Ben Phillips who prior to spearheading the recent push for justice for former residents of Pruitt Igoe, received a degree in sociology from the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

    Phillips had a distinguished career in public service as well as St. Louis and Missouri politics.

    Ben Phillip's accomplishments include  a gubernatorial appointee to the St. Louis City board of elections commission,  a Mayoral appointment to the City of St. Louis Employees Retirement Board and serving as Presiding of the Missouri State President of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice (NABCJ).

    Link to Post-Dispatch story on documentary base on Pruitt Igoe experiments.

    Don't miss an episode and subscribe to Breaking Green wherever you get your podcasts.

    This podcast is produced by Global Justice Ecology Project.

    Breaking Green is made possible by tax deductible donations from people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights and expose false solutions.  

    Donate securely online here
    Or simply text GIVE to 

    • 44 min

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