Astrophysicist Martin Gaskell discusses—at virtually the same time as its publication to the word—what has been called the "greatest astronomical discovery of all time." The conversation ranges from science to intriguing notes on spirituality. Dr. Gaskell is a professor of astronomy at the University of California Santa Cruz. An Infrared View of the M81 Galaxy | NASACredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dr. Gaskell shares fascinating insights about Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, the Nobel Prize, Mars Exploration, going back to the Moon, the Origins of the Universe, and the relationship between science and spirituality. With a Ph.D., 1981, University of California, Santa Cruz andPostdoctoral fellow (1981-1983), University of Cambridge, Dr. Gaskell is currently a researcher and lecturer in Astronomy & Astrophysics at UCSC. His primary research interests are in theoretical and observational studies of what happens around the most bizarre objects in the universe: supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies.  As matter spirals into these black holes, it produces a tremendous release of energy as what is called an "active galactic nucleus" or AGN for short. AGNs are the most powerful energy sources in the universe (more powerful than an entire galaxy of stars).  Because they are so luminous they can be seen far away —back to the early days of the formation of galaxies when the universe was young. Much of Gaskell's work involves collaboration with other researchers around the world. "I like to work at the interface of theory and observation.  My research involves observations with giant telescopes on the ground, satellites in space, computer simulations, and sometimes just good old fashioned pencil and paper."

Planet Watch Radio Podcast

Universe: The Greatest Astronomical Discovery of All Time

Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project Executive Director Ben Harris talks about the importance of salmonids—salmon and trout— in maintaining the ecological health of ocean and land. Harris explains how and why Pacific salmon populations have drastically declined, and describes efforts underway to help native Monterey Bay populations of Coho and Steelhead recover from the brink of extinction. He also discusses why farmed salmon should be "off the table" and how food choices we make at the market can affect not only the fate of the fish, but also the health of the oceans and our own well-being. Harris pursued his life-long interest in fish by earning his B.S. in Fisheries Biology from Humboldt State University in California and then an M.S. in Fisheries Resources from his native West Virginia University. One of his goals as the Executive Director of MBSTP is to bring back the much-loved Salmon and Trout Education Project.

Salmon: Restoring an Endangered Species

On this episode of Planet Watch, an inspiring and uplifting interview with Lynne Cherry, the originator, producer and director of  Young Voices for the Planet films. Lynne talks about her current film project and also discusses the mental health considerations involved in educating the young about climate change and environmental crisis. Young Voices for the Planet, a film series, features youth working to limit climate change and its impacts in their communities and around the planet. The films document inspiring success stories of youth speaking out, creating solutions, challenging decision-makers, informing their communities, and catalyzing change. The engaging films, which feature diverse students from elementary to high school age taking on a variety of projects to reduce the carbon footprint of their homes, schools and communities, are available to students and teachers. The films are supported by standards-aligned, interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum. "The Young Voices for the Planet movies allow your young voices to be heard. Seeing what other young people have done and are doing will inspire you to action!" Lynne is author/illustrator of 30 award-winning children’s books including her popular and beloved rain forest classic, The Great Kapok Tree and her environmental history A River Ran Wild. Lynne received her BA from Tyler School of Art; a Masters in History at Yale University. She has had artist-in-residencies at Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution and Cornell University and science-writing fellowships from the Marine Biological Lab and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She was a winner of a Metcalf Fellowship and the Brandwein Prize. Her academic writings include a chapter in “Written in Water” published by National Geographic Books, a chapter “Kids Can Save Forests” in “Treetops At Risk” edited by Dr. Margaret Lowman (Springer) and a chapter “Teaching Climate Change With Hope and Solutions: Lessons from a Film Project” in the book “Education in Times of Environmental Crisis.” (Routledge, 2016)

Young Voices for the Planet: Youth Lead Fight Against Climate Change

Nuclear Winter, first described by Drs. Brian Toon, Rich Turco, Tom Ackerman, James Pollack, and Carl Sagan ("TTAPS")   equates the plume of smoke from a comet impact that covered Earth causing the great extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago with the global winter that could extinct most life on Earth in the event of a Nuclear War. Understanding what the scientists told them of the threat of Nuclear Winter led to Reagan and Gorbachev to initiate a nuclear non-proliferation treaty process that has been followed by every US president since, until Trump. In his recent TedTalk Dr Toon  renews those warnings, that nuclear weapon detonation will cause massive atmospheric darkening from world-wide smoke and fires, resulting in the annihilation of much of the life on Earth. Dr. Toon, currently an Atmospheric and Oceanic a researcher at University of Colorado, was a lead atmospheric chemist on the NASA Ozone Hole research, which led to perhaps the most impressive example to date of human cooperation—the Montreal Protocol Banning Substances that Deplete the Ozone. Since the treaty was signed in 1987 by nearly every country on the planet, the international treaty to phase out ozone depleting chemicals has been carefully monitored. In this episode of Planet Watch, Dr. Toon reports on the progress to date on repairing the Ozone Hole. Air Date: November 4, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

Nuclear Winter & Ozone Hole Recovery with Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Brian Toon-PW095

Life on Mars? Dr. Jr. R. Skok of the SETI Institute discusses Current and Upcoming Exploration and Research on MARS Dr. Skok, explorer and planetary scientist with SETI, earned his B.S. at Cornell University and his Ph.D. from  Brown in Geological Sciences. In the spring of 2017, he took part in an international scientific expedition to study the El Tatio geyser field in the Chilean Andes. Dr. Skok has been studying deposits from hot spring and geyser systems throughout the world that closely resemble those on Mars, in order to understand what they mean for habitats and preservation of life here on Earth. Based on this work, Dr. Skok and his colleagues at SETI and NASA are planning future expeditions to search for life on Mars. The evolution of life on Mars could be relevant to Climate Change studies on Planet Earth. On this episode of Planet Watch, JR also talks about his Made of Mars project and his experiences exploring caves around the planet. For more on current Mars research see previous Planet Watch episodes with Dr. Chris McKay and Dr. Carol Stoker. Air Date: October 21, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Life on Mars? Explorations of a SETI Planetary Scientist-PPW093

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) 2018 predicts far more dire and rapidly escalating consequences of Climate Change than any IPCC analysis thus far, and calls for a historically unprecedented  transformation of the world economy to avert the worst of the damage. Two of the IPCC's authors, Dr. Nathalie Mehowald of Cornell and Dr. Kristie Ebi of University of Washington, share their thoughts on the report, the problem, and possible solutions. Air Date: October 14, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080  

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  (IPCC) 2018 -PW092

  Chris McKay, NASA Mars Researcher, and Friederike Otto, University of Oxford climate modeller Science is the focus of this week's Planet Watch.  Senior NASA scientist Chris McKay, in the Planetary Systems Branch of NASA Ames, is an expert on the evolution of the solar system and the origins of life. Chris is also involved in planning for future Mars expeditions, including human exploration of the "Red Planet." Chris will answer the question , "What is Enceladus?" and will share with us what the recent news about this "tortured moon of Saturn" means for the search for life beyond Planet Earth. In our second interview this week, we talk with Dr. Fredierike Otto, a climate modeler at the University of Oxford, and director of a consortium of scientists in the UK and elsewhere who are working to find the footprint of human caused climate change in extreme weather events. In her July 2018 article in Nature International Journal of Science she predicts that weather forecasters will soon provide instant assessments of global warming's influence on extreme events. Air Date: October 7, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Earth and Mars Scientists Discuss Current Research-PW091

How secure is the US voting system? The upcoming midterm elections may be the most important in the history of American Democracy. Yet evidence has shown that there was foreign interference in the 2016 election, with suspected attacks on voter registration systems in twenty-one states. A recent DEF CON hacking conference in Washington DC demonstrated serious risks to our critical voting infrastructure, which affect our national security. Any voting system connected to the internet runs the risk of machines being hacked and data being compromised or altered. With our voting machines running on proprietary software that cannot be checked for bugs or malicious code, and no paper records of votes cast on the machines, there is no way to conduct verifiable audits of elections. Researchers have found that many of our systems are riddled with basic security blunders and poorly written software. Going into the midterms, what measures, if any, are being taken to correct vulnerabilities in our voting system? Today on Planet Watch, computer scientist and voting security expert Robert Kibrick discusses what we can do to defend American Democracy and protect every voter's ballot. Kibrick is a retired research astronomer on staff at the University of California Lick Observatory with expertise in computer networking, software development, programming, hardware troubleshooting, optical imaging, observational astronomy, and mathematical computing. He has been volunteering with the Verified Voting Foundation, a non-governmental, nonpartisan organization founded in 2003 by computer scientists from Stanford University. Electronic voting machines with no verifiable paper trail, massive disenfranchisement of voters, and Electoral College injustices arising from gerrymandering are some of the main issues experts have identified that must to be addressed quickly to keep our democracy alive. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Get involved! Air Date: September 30, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Voting Security in 2018: Is Your Vote Being Hacked?-PW090

Brain-Harming Chlorpyrifos just the latest agricultural pesticide poisoning our children and our planet Californians for Pesticide Reform  co-director Mark Weller, and author/pesticide activist Mary Flodin talk with with Planet Watch hosts Rachel and Joe about challenges and successes in the decades-long struggle to protect communities from toxic pesticide exposure (www.facebook.com/CaPestReform). Based out of the Salinas office of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, Mark provides mentorship and support for organizers statewide, including Safe Ag Safe Schools . SafeAgSafeSchools.org is a coalition of over 50 organizations and individuals working together to reduce the threat of pesticide exposure in the Monterey Bay area. "SASS" focuses on increasing grassroots pressure on policy-makers to reduce hazardous pesticide use in and around schools and residential communities. Mark is co-author of the book, Dollars and Votes: How Business Campaign Contributions Subvert Democracy. Air Date: September 23, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Pesticides: Out of Our Soil, Air, Water, and Food-PW089

Organic farming policy pioneer Mark Lipson talks about crafting the national standard for organic farming, and how our federal agricultural policies impact our health and the health of our environment. Mark started his advocacy career as the first paid staff member at the California Certified Organic Farmers (now the nation’s largest organic certification organization). He worked as a senior analyst and policy program director for the Organic Farming Research Foundation and eventually made his way to the USDA . He worked on agricultural policy for the Obama administration, serving in the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. as the first organic policy advisor from 2010 to 2014. Over the past two decades, Mark shepherded several historic changes in agricultural funding through Congress. Currently, Mark is a Research Associate with the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Farming Systems at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC). He knows organic farming from the ground up: he got his hands in the dirt early in his career, helping to organize Molino Creek, a co-operative farming community located on the coast of Central California. (Molino Creek pioneered the growing of flavorful, dry-farmed tomatoes grown without irrigation.) On this episode of Planet Watch Radio, Mark, Joe, and Rachel examine claims about how much carbon agriculture can sequester from the atmosphere, and have a candid discussion about what we may expect from the new Farm Bill and how Trump's rampant dismantling of American regulatory agencies may effect organic agriculture, the quality of the food we eat, and our health.

Agricultural Policy and Our Health: Crafting National Standards for Organic Farming-PW088

Today's interview is with Lois Robin, producer of The Dirt on Climate Change, a film about ecological and biological approaches to climate change. Lois has been an author, filmmaker, and environmental activist for thirty years. Her newest film takes on what we can do to enhance nature's ability to sequester carbon through naturally occurring processes. The film features people who  practice no-till, regenerative agriculture to sequester carbon in soil and plants, and keep rain in the soil rather than letting it run off to the rivers. The film also addresses the role trees play in the carbon and water cycles, livestock management and regenerative grazing, the importance of forest regeneration, and even projects residential gardeners can take on to help sequester carbon. In 2017, Lois accompanied her son, Daniel Robin, who spoke at the Harvard conference on Climate Reckoning, where many of the concepts explored in Lois' film were discussed. For highlights on that conference see http://www.in3finance.com/highlights-of-2017-climate-reckoning-at-harvard-university For educators, there is a great deal of excellent teaching material available on this importance of cultivating healthy soil, including a NOAA webinar about the Life Lab "Kiss the Soil" Curriculum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTjlF3DUZpM&feature=youtu.be Teachers can download the curriculum  https://kisstheground.activehosted.com/f/5   Another film beautifully illustrating the connections between healthy soil and a healthy, living planet is Symphony of Soil by Deborah Koons Garcia.

The Dirt on Climate Change: a New Film on Carbon Sequestration and Climate Change-PW087

Standing Rock Water Protectors: Climate Justice Showdown Still Hanging Fire In what defense attorneys are calling a major victory for their client and for the water protectors of Standing Rock, prosecutors have dropped all serious charges against former North Dakota congressional candidate Chase Iron Eyes in his case resulting from protests of the Dakota Access pipeline. Chief Iron Eyes, an attorney who works for the Lakota People’s Law Project, was facing a maximum of six years in state prison after his arrest for alleged criminal trespass and incitement of a riot near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation on February 1, 2017. “The world should know that it’s legally impossible for me and other Native people to trespass on treaty land," stated Chief Iron Eyes. Iron Eyes’ attorneys filed documents on Monday proving that his arrest occurred on treaty land never ceded by the Sioux tribe. The state of North Dakota ruled weeks ago that this land had never been acquired nor legally owned by pipeline parent company Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). "I and the water protectors are not terrorists. We and the US veterans who stood with us to protect Mother Earth are the true patriots,” said Iron Eyes.   Romero Institute co-founder Daniel Sheehan was chief attorney on Iron Eyes’ defense team for the Lakota People’s Law Project. Lakota People's Law is an ongoing campaign of the Romero Institute, an interfaith, nonprofit law and public policy center that grew out of the Christic Institute, and which has been at the center of profoundly significant landmark legal cases for social and environmental justice since the 1980's.   Radio Planet Watch is honored to host Daniel Sheehan's son, Lakota People's Law Project Program Director Danny Paul Nelson. Nelson, who holds a BA in Political Theory from Harvard and an MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago, speaks with Planet Watch hosts Jordan and Goodman about the recent legal victory from Standing Rock, and connections between indigenous rights and climate justice. “Our work to prepare Chase’s defense unveiled solid evidence of a racially ­motivated criminal alliance between the oil companies and the private military security industry (colluding with local, state, and federal law enforcement) to deny Native Americans and their allies their civil and treaty rights,” said Danny Paul. “Standing Rock focused the attention of the world on the importance of Native sovereignty and the needs to protect water and resist climate change. Chase’s willingness to pursue a 'necessity' defense has produced strong legal tools for future protesters.” Prior to the interview with Danny Paul on today's show, Planet Watch shared an audio clip from a just ­released video, We Are Not Terrorists. In the video, Iron Eyes and his team position their anti­-pipeline protest in the context of what they assert to be a growing threat posed to civil liberties, embodied by the rise of anti­protest legislation and the burgeoning alliance between the oil companies and the private military security industry. The video is accompanied by an open letter to President Donald Trump. Danny Paul exposes a dangerous trend has emerging in Trump's America: The administration is opening Native American reservations and national monument lands to fossil fuel extraction, and activists are being targeted by law enforcement and treated like terrorists. Currently, 20 states have passed or are considering legislation that would curtail citizen rights to protest environmental destruction and human rights violations. Moving forward, Lakota People’s Law Project Chief Counsel Daniel Sheehan and the entire team will continue to strategically confront the fossil fuel industry and their destructive agenda, which threatens our water, our planet, and the entire human family. Positive steps forward now include the Green the Rez initiative.

Standing Rock Water Protectors and Climate Justice-PW086

Grid Alternatives Director of International Programs Jenean Smith is today's guest on Planet Watch Radio. The vision of Grid Alternatives is a successful transition to clean, renewable energy that includes everyone, and its mission is to make renewable energy technology and job training accessible to underserved communities everywhere. On today's program, find out about exciting volunteer opportunities in Nepal, Nicaragua, and around the world bringing solar electricity to rural villages! Jenean joined the solar industry in 2007 to work for Mitsubishi Electric's Solar Division and later worked for Trojan Battery Company's Renewable Energy Division. She is the founder of Power to the People, a non-profit organization that helps bring renewable energy solutions to the developing world, and facilitated its acquisition by GRID Alternatives. Before working in the solar industry, she was the Youth Program Director for the Riecken Foundation in Honduras and was a Peace Corps volunteer in San Lorenzo, Nicaragua. Jenean holds a BA in Sociology from UMASS Boston, an MBA from Northeastern University and a Masters in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University.  

Grid Alternatives: Making Renewable Energy Accessible Around the World-PW085

A major fraction of all driving consists of  "cross-town-scale" trips (20 miles or less).  If you're paying attention to our oncoming climate "train wreck" you're well aware of the great importance of getting people out of their cars. Better public transportation can do some of that, but how about a new public system for electrified personal transit? Find out about the new E-Bike-Share program now in Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Sacramento, Denver, New York, Austin, Chicago, Washington D.C., Berlin, and coming to your city soon! Joe Jordan and Rachel Anne Goodman interview JUMP Bikes "spokes"person Meaghan Mitchell about this new phenomenon. Air Date: August 19, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080

Electric Bike Share: Part of the Transportation Solution-PW084

Save Our Shores is an ocean conservation organization in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Led by Executive Director Katherine O'Dea, the Save Our Shores team of scientists, ecologists, educators, and conservationists are passionate about protecting the Monterey Bay and are making waves nationally as advocates for the world's oceans. Today, O'Dea visits Planet Watch Radio's Rachel Anne Goodman and Joe Jordan for a conversation centering on current news about drilling, threats to our Marine Sanctuaries, and legislation aimed to stave off the worst attacks on our oceans. Air Date: August 12, 2018 on KSCO radio station AM1080    

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