Sustainability Now! on KSQD.org

The Kenneth S. Norris Center at UC Santa Cruz is one of the little-known jewels of the campus as well as the Monterey Bay Region. Ken Norris was an American marine mammal biologist, conservationist, naturalist, and co-founder of SeaWorld, as well as a professor of natural history at UCSC. He was the creator of the UC Natural Reserve System, too. The Norris Center holds a vast collection of insects, plants and seeds from the Santa Cruz Mountains and supports classes, internships and research by UCSC students, faculty and staff. Join me in two weeks for a conversation about the Norris Center with Professor Ingrid Parker, the Center’s Faculty Director and Chris Lay, the Center’s Director. Find out about the Center’s treasures and how you can see them!

Millions of Americans see themselves as "conflicted omnivores," worrying about the ethical and environmental implications of their choice to eat animals. Yet their attempts to justify their choices only obscure the truth of the matter. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Dr. John Sabonmatsu, Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. His recently published book, The Omnivore’s Deception, provides a deeply observed philosophical meditation on the nature of our relationship with animals. Sabonmatsu argues that killing and eating animals is unethical, regardless of whether they are "free range" or factory farmed. The problem with raising and killing animals for food isn't just that it's "bad for the environment,” but the wrong way to live a human life.

Tom Lehrer, the musical satirist par excellence of the 1950s and 1960s, died this past July at age 97. Many listeners and their progeny grew up listening to and singing his compelling compositions: easy to remember, easy to sing and easy to finish. Who could forget “The Vatican Rag” or “The Elements?” What some might not know is that, from 1972 to 2001, in flight from East Coast winters, Tom also taught math and theater at UC Santa Cruz, as a lecturer in American Studies. Along the way, he made many friends and inspired countless students. Join Ronnie Lipschutz for a tribute to Tom Lehrer, including brief commentary, songs and interviews. It certainly won’t be wasted. If you would like to know all about Tom and his music, you can find resources and links in this folder: https://tinyurl.com/tdh7n8d9 ( Photo by Anthony Pidgeon/Redferns )

What’s up with climate change and climate law? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is going to cancel the “endangerment finding” of 2009 that provided the legal basis for regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. In July, the Department of Energy released “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate,” which downplayed the research, the impacts and the importance of climate change. The Trump Administration has pretty much declared that is it going to eliminate anything that suggests climate change is a threat. And fossil fuel companies have been unleashed to produce anywhere the is even a hint of fossil carbon. At the same time, three international courts—the International Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea—have issued opinions that international climate law requires countries to act now to reduce emissions. What does the law say? What is law’s impact? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Professor Alice Kaswan of the University of San Francisco School of Law. Professor Kaswan’s scholarly work focuses on climate change with a particular emphasis on federalism and on environmental justice. She has written extensively about the role of state and local governments in climate change adaptation and mitigation policy. In addition, she has addressed the environmental justice dimensions of domestic climate change policy. Feeling warm? Tune in! Photo Copyright: Photographs©2015 Barbara Ries. All rights reserved.

The world is awash in plastic. According to a study published in 2020, total production of plastics since 1950 is now over 10 billion tons, with more than half of that simply discarded. And the production of plastics will only increase in the future. There is a lot of oil and natural gas in the world and, if and when we wean ourselves from fossil fuels, oil and chemical companies will be looking for other places to use their stocks. So far, only about one billion tons of plastic have been recycled—that is, put into the recycling chain. What exactly has happened to that material is less clear. Different types of plastic require different post-consumer processing to turn them back into pellets of raw material. Most factories are set up to use only particular types of plastic and it is still cheaper to buy virgin pellets than recycled ones. Are compostable plastics the solution? What is a compostable plastic? What is it made from? How is it broken down? Are there plastics that will simply decompose into constituent molecules by weathering and micro-organisms? Questions, questions. Are there answers? Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a chemistry and economics lesson from Dr. Susannah Scott, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and occupant of the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Sustainable Catalytic Processing at the University of California Santa Barbara. Here I quote from a UCSB website: "Her research interests include the design of heterogeneous catalysts with well-defined active sites for the efficient conversion of conventional and new feedstocks, as well as environmental catalysts to promote air and water quality."

The United States has indicated that it will begin to explore commercial mining of mineral nodules on the international seabed, in violation of the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and the International Seabed Authority. These nodules contain a variety of minerals used in cell phones, electric cars and other high-tech devices and could reduce U.S. reliance on questionable sources of rare earth and other metals. Opponents counter that the ecological damage imposed by such mining would far outweigh any benefits. But there is another argument for letting sleeping nodules lie: deep-sea mining is a multi-billion-dollar solution to problems that do not exist. Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a discussion with Professors D.G. Webster of Dartmouth College and Susan Park, from the University of Sydney. They, along with several colleagues, recently published “The false promise of deep-sea mining,” a critique of the proposal focused on terrestrial mineral availability, limited social benefits and supply chain economics.