Breaking Green

Send us Fan Mail We talk with Kaleb Lay from Oregon Rural Action about how people living in a rural Oregon “sacrifice zone” end up with poisoned well water, and a widening wealth gap. We explore environmentalist claims that industrial farming, combined with a rapid build-out of Amazon data centers is compounding deadly nitrate contamination while communities fight for testing, transparency, and accountability. • what Oregon Rural Action does across immigration justice and pollution wor...

Send us Fan Mail We trace how the Great Plains still lives with Dust Bowl forces as Dr. Joshua Anderson links soil loss, monoculture, and rural decline to a culture that no longer asks if we are growing food. Caregiving for his father with MS shapes a vision to “restory” land and rebuild soil health through minimal disturbance, living roots, diversity, and cover. Joshua T. Anderson is a writer and soil conservationist from rural North Dakota committed to flyways, foodways, and folkways. His f...

Send us Fan Mail A celebrated naturalist’s Maine hillside holds thousands of wild American chestnuts thriving across three generations, challenging the claim that the species cannot return without genetic engineering. We explore the history of blight, restoration strategies, climate shifts, and why evidence from the field matters. • origins of the blight and early containment attempts • limits of Chinese hybrid chestnuts in forest settings • selective breeding for American traits with blight...

Send us Fan Mail The Marshall Islands face dual threats from the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing and the advancing impacts of climate change, creating an urgent struggle for justice and survival. On this episode of Breaking Green we are going to speak with Shem Livai. Shem Livai is a Director at Marshalls Energy Company in the Marshall Islands. He is a Ph.D. candidate in Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change from the University of the Virgin Islands, he has an MBA from the University o...

Send us Fan Mail The Mapuche people of Chile are fighting to reclaim ancestral lands taken over by vast industrial eucalyptus and pine plantations established during the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s. Their struggle goes beyond land ownership—it's about reclaiming culture, spirituality, language, and food sovereignty while facing criminalization under Chile's new "usurpation law." • Mapuche territory (Wallmapu) was initially protected by treaty but later seized through what the Chilean ...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when justice collides with government secrecy? We invite you to join our conversation with attorney Michael Kuzma as we untangle the complex case of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist imprisoned for nearly five decades. Despite clear evidence of trial irregularities, withheld FBI documents, and a ballistics report proving Peltier's innocence, he was denied a retrial. Kuzma shares his insights into the disparities between Peltier’s conviction and the acqu...

Send us Fan Mail What if conservation efforts meant to protect our planet were actually causing significant harm to the very people who have safeguarded these lands for generations? On this episode of Breaking Green, we speak with founder and executive director of the Oakland Institute, Anuradha Mittal. Anuradha is an internationally renowned expert on issues of human rights, agriculture, development and conservation policies. Under Anuradha’s leadership, the Oakland Institute has unve...

Send us Fan Mail On January 18th of last year, a land defender protesting the razing of an urban forest to build a police training mega complex known as COP City was killed by a hail of bullets fired by police in Atlanta Georgia. Authorities claim the had fired a weapon at police, but there is strong forensic evidence that the protester was seated with hands up and had not fired a weapon. Many other peaceful protesters as well as those providing mutual aid and bond support have been cha...

Send us Fan Mail When the salmon numbers in the Klamath River dwindled, it wasn't just a loss of wildlife, it was a piece of Brook Thompson's heritage slipping away. Our latest episode of Breaking Green features Brook, a Yurok and Karuk Native American, water resource engineer, and PhD student, who unravels the deep ties between her tribe's culture and the river's salmon. Discover how she leverages her academic prowess and indigenous insight to fight against the environmental crises that thre...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Amer...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail Marginalized communities are frequently targeted for the placement of toxic projects. Protest and community organizing has been an indispensable strategy in seeking environmental justice and fighting for those living in minority, poor and indigenous communities. But now, so-called critical infrastructure laws are springing up around the United States in what appears to be a coordinated effort by corporate interests to muzzle protest. These laws seek to criminalize dissent an...