The Little Green Schoolhouse Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. With the Five College Area headed for summer break and young kids thinking about anything but school, we have a look at green education (what? contrary?). Abbie Jenks, founder of the Peace, Justice and Environmental Studies program at Greenfield Community College calls in. Also joining us in the studio, Marcy Gregoire, founder and proud member of Under the Tree Music Company where they practice "kidTunage to Love Up the Earth Mamacita" (sounds like we're on the same page, yes?). As usual, we see who this week's Fool-on-the-Hill might be, checkout our E-Valley-uation segment, as well as The Enviro Show Echo Chamber, but first it's time for......Revenge of the Critters! Since owls seem to be associated with wisdom, and since we're talking education here, did these guys score some smarts? Maybe not target #1, Byron Unger, "an award-winning world class racer [who] owns a wide variety of racing boats and automobiles". Maybe this wise owl was teaching Byron a lesson about carbon footprints?

It's E-Vally-uation time: Does Springfield really need fewer trees? We don't think so! And while we're in Springfield we report back on last week's Rally and City Council Meeting on the Springfield biomass incinerator that threatens Western Mass air, forests and communities! [This just in: City Council votes to revoke biomess permit!]. Meanwhile, up the river by Turners Falls we get an update from Karl Meyer on fixing the ocean connection on the Connecticut River. Karl is asking Enviro Show fans to notify their MA state reps and State Senator Stan Rosenberg about the need to "Build the long-overdue fish lift at the dam and return regulated spring flows to the crippled dead reach of the river below the dam". Save the shad! And a follow-up on Mass. Sierra Club's Elisa Campbell and her winning The Enviro Show Big Green Clearcutters Award. We can't get pro-clearcutting Campbell to pick-up the award no matter how hard we try, even offering it to her on the Mass. Sierra Facebook page (said offer vanished soon after posting....what's that about?).

We get in the Wayback Machine for our Enviro Quote of the Week which comes from Chief Luther Standing Bear of the Lakota Sioux:

"I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization."

In the Enviro Show Echo Chamber we can only wish we were echoing the corporate media about the ongoing multiple radioactive meltdowns at Fukushima but hey, that story is so last month! Not here though, we spotlight nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen who says that the containment vessels for reactors 1, 2 and 3 are all leaking. This is not good news, but here is something to cheer you up: direct action against the biomess in the UK (we celebrate where we can!). Our Enviro Show Blog Bonus is this Greenpeace action link. Stop whaling! Also: everyone loses on the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. And finally (and we really mean finally): Mickey & Minnie busted for tree-hugging!

This week's Fool-on-the-hill? Utah Rep. Rob Bishop who wants you to believe, "There are no special subsidies or tax breaks for oil companies, period." We used to call that lying, these days it's called.....messaging? How about a gaggle of fools: Senate wimps out on oil subsidies bill.

"Earth" by The Green Rockers takes us to our interviews. Then we're on to the Bus Stop Billboard (look at all these post-End of the World events!):

Wednesday May 25, 12:30pm (brown bag lunch at noon). Green Works meeting. Pioneer Valley Central Labor Council, 640 Page Boulevard, Springfield. Call: (413) 827-0301, Email: jon@wmjwj.org.

Wednesday, May 25, 2-4 pm. Deadly Deal: From Nuclear Waste to Depleted Uranium Weapons –What Have We Learned? A discussion will feature the 30-minute documentary film,
“Uranio 238”. Bangs Center - Room 101, Boltwood Walk, Amherst. Call: (413)522-7505

Friday, May 27, 10:30 to 11:30am. Fourth Friday Young Children's Story Hour explores Fish (especially for children ages 3-6). After the story, you can join us for an age appropriate activity. Great Falls Discovery Center, Avenue A, Turners Falls. Call: (413)863-3221

Friday, May 27, 7pm. Screening of A Killer Bargain The work that globalization offers often comes with pollution and life-threatening working conditions. Media Education Foundation, 60 Masonic Street in Northampton. Enter via Woodstar Cafe, at the front of the building. The venue is accessible. The screenings are free unless otherwise noted. Discussion follows.

Tuesday, May 31, 5:30pm. Citizens Action Network organizing meeting. Solar Store of Greenfield, 2 Fiske Ave, Greenfield. Come and get the latest info on ENVY, Entergy's lawsuit, Fukushima catastrophe. Come with ideas for possible actions. Come and help determine the next steps for CAN

Wed.-Fri. June 1-3, All day. Slow Living Summit, an intensive two-and-a-half day exploration to find ways to build healthy, thriving local economies while encouraging, mentoring and supporting a new generation of activists, entrepreneurs and engaged citizens. Featuring Bill McKibben. WARNING: Pricey! Go to: http://www.strollingoftheheifers.com/slow-living-summit

Saturday, June 4, 10am to 2pm. Fort River Celebration Day in Amherst. Please visit www.fortriverdiscovery.org for more information and further program and event listings.

Sunday, June 5, 2011, 4-5:30, potluck at 5:30. 7:00pm, meeting. Green-Rainbow Party - Pioneer Valley Chapter. Hitchcock Center for the Environment, 525 South Pleasant Street, Amherst. Call: 413-320-3747.

On June 6, environmental groups, labor unions and other activists and organizations will unite for the March on Blair Mountain, a five-day trek merged with workshops, cultural festivities and music. On the sixth day, a large rally will be held in Blair, followed by a march to the crest of Blair Mountain. MA contact: barefootreehugger@gmail.com or call (304)854-0390

Thursday, June 9, 8pm? War criminal Karl Rove will be Keynote speaker for the 2011 Annual Landmen (Big Oil businessmen) Meeting at the The Boston Park Plaza Hotel (50 Park Plaza At Arlington Street, Boston). Rove is scheduled to speak at 9 AM. Bring handcuffs! Email: neimpeach@gmail.com

Saturday, June 11, 9am to Noon. Geo Plus River Walk. Steve Winters, now working as Holyoke Community College’s first full-time Earth Science instructor, will again make the geologic rounds in Turners. Great Falls Discovery Center, Avenue A, Turners Falls. Call: (413)863-3221

Satruday June 11. 10am to 4pm. Riverfest, celebrating the Deerfield RIver, Shelburne Falls. Call (413) 625-2526

Saturday, June 11, 3:00 p.m.: 250th Shutesbury Anniversary Parade, hopefully featuring our friends the trees. Parade from elementary school to town common along Leverett Road., after the parade: Festivities at Shutesbury Athletic Club! 5:30 p.m. barbecue; 7:00 - 10:00 p.m., performance by Briefcase Full of Blues. See: http://www.shutesbury.org/250th

Friday, July 22 through Sunday, July 24. Clamshell Alliance reunion & resurgence:For rooms, tenting and dining, the World Fellowship can accommodate up to 150 overnight, so reserve soon (www.worldfellowship.org) if you plan to stay over. This is a link to organizing materials on the Clamshell Alliance website: http://clamshellalliance.org/?page_id=58. For information, connection and conversation, join clamshellalliance@yahoo.com, visit the www.clamshellalliance.org website and Facebook at http://facebook.com/ClamshellAlliance.

Lots to do, yes? We go out with "Teach your children well" by Crosby, Stills & Nash (not sure if Neil Young is in there). In any case, remember to listen to your Mother, ok?

The Annual Enviro Show Big Green Clearcutters Award!

Now listen-up! for our Annual Enviro Show Big Green Clearcutters Award: this year's award goes to (drum roll please) Elisa Campbell! Again!! For two years running, Mass Sierra Club's Elisa Campbell, the pro-nuke, pro-development, pro-clearcutting "environmentalist" proves her worth....lessness. She even undercuts the Sierra Club! That's right, the MA Sierra Club representative in charge of Public Lands and Forestry is trying to subvert the group's own principals. Checkout Campbell's comment at last November's Forest Forum:

"I'm still trying to plug away at subverting the usual paradigm at the Sierra Club"

What? You mean Sierra Club's stand against CLEARCUTTING! Someone get the hook!

Barking up The Enviro Show

Greetings Earthlings. Have you been barking up the wrong tree lately? Michael Wojtech, author of the just released book Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast, joins us to talk trees. As always, we scope out the latest news in the Enviro Show Echo Chamber and locally in our E-Valley-uation segment. We'll Meet the New Boss this time, as well as this week's Fool-on-the-Hill, but first it's time for...Revenge of Critters: This bad player? His goat got him!.

In The Enviro Show Echo Chamber we stick with the critters for openers. Checkout the awesome lyrebird who apparently imitates sound of its own habitat destruction. So, how different is that from two-legged workers who imitate the sounds of the wealthy corporados? More critters in trouble: bees and colony collapse. Maybe it's NOT such a mystery. Neurotoxic pesticides that are known to be particularly toxic to honey bees has rapidly taken over the global insecticide market. Checkout this campaign. In case you're thinking we've moved on from what may be the worst nuclear power disaster ever, fear not....er..well...checkout this video from Fairwinds. Also this. O, and speaking of nuclear: uranium mining in the Grand Canyon? No thanks! Take action here. And, the New York Times discovers the truth about the NRC. Another environmental horror show is on deck: the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would carry environmentally destructive tar sands oil straight across the Canadian border across the width of the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Take action here.

Time to Meet the New Boss again. We know Obama has scored all sorts of kudos for the reported hit on Osama (what's with these names?), but even if you happen to celebrate assassinations or are a knee-jerk Dem, the guy is still shilling for the corporados.

This week's Fool-on-the-Hill is House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (Repugnican-Wash.) who authored the bill passed in the House to expedite oil drilling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Virginia coast. Repugnicans are falsely claiming that supply is the reason for rising oil prices when in fact Wall Street commodity speculation jacks up the prices you pay at the pump. The cop on the beat that's supposed to stop such nefarious activity is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but it seems they're asleep in the patrol car. Guess who wants to punish them anyway? The same Repugnicans who want to drill baby, drill!

In our E-Valley-uation segment we take a moment to scan the newly released proposed biomass energy regulations. Given that Western Mass is ground zero in the Biomess, these proposed regs have special meaning to Mass Forest Watch[pdf]. That reminds us: Happy Asthma Awareness Month? Kidding! It just seems since our air quality in the Valley is soooo awful we should maybe think about making it worse with a new incinerator? Ya' think?

Now for our Annual Enviro Show Big Green Clearcutters Award: this year's award goes to..(TADA!!)....Elisa Campbell! Again!! For two years running, Mass Sierra Club's Board of Directors member Elisa Campbell, the pro-nuke, pro-development, pro-clearcutting "environmentalist" proves her worth....lessness. She even undercuts the Sierra Club! That's right, the MA Sierra Club representative in charge of Public Lands and Forestry is trying to subvert her group's own principals! Checkout Campbell's comment at last November's Forest Forum: "I'm still trying to plug away at subverting the usual paradigm at the Sierra Club" What? like advocating CLEARCUTTING! Someone get the hook!

"C is for Conifers" by They Might be Giants takes us to our interview with Michael Wojtech, author of the just released book Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast.

Finally, it's on to the Bus Stop Billboard:

Thursday May 12th, 6:30 PM. Screening of "Into Eternity", a compelling Danish film about the construction of the world's first permanent repository for high level radioactive waste in Finland. Greenfield Comm. College Main Campus, Main Building 3rd floor, Stinchfield Hall,Park in E lot, walk on service road that goes behind the main building, follow the signs. Admission: Contributions greatly appreciated.

Friday May 13 at 11:15am at the Central Labor Council Hall, 640 Page Boulevard, Springfield, there will be a report-back on the recent Green Jobs workshop that explored some of the issues around a possible Greening Mount Tom campaign, a community effort that might transform the coal-burning power plant in Holyoke into a more sustainable and socially just operation.

Sat, May 14, 1pm – 4pm. Bay State Village Big Bike Bonanza. Bike tune-ups, games, bike decorating, show off your interesting bike, face painting, try out the pedal people's bike with loaded trailer. Field in Bay State Village, Northampton. A Bay State Bike Week event. For more information, contact vhfath@verizon.net.

Saturday, May 14 · 9:00am - 12:30pm, North Amherst Community farm Plant Swap & Sale. Simple Gifts Farm in North Amherst, 1089 N. Pleasant Street, Amherst. Contact: kemgall@gmail.com

Sun, May 15, 9:00am – 10:30am. Another Bay State Bike Week event: Join naturalist David King as he leads a tour of the natural history and ecology and conservation efforts around Hadley. Meet at the Connecticut River levee and North and West Street. Bring binoculars. For more information, contact Heather Vinski at hvinski@yahoo.com.

Tuesday, May 17, 4:30 pm. Springfield City Council will hold a hearing at Springfield City Hall to consider amending or revoking Palmer Renewable Energy's permit to construct a biomass incinerator in Springfield. ALL OUT TO STOP IT! Rally at 3:30pm. SPRINGFIELD RESIDENTS: please call your City Councilor and At-Large City Councilors. It is now crucial that we secure nine city councilor votes to revoke this permit, and we need your help to do this. Go to: www.springfieldincinerator.info/actions.html

Thursday, May 19, 7pm, Sea Lamprey with Expert Boyd Kynard— Come learn about one of the most fascinating, misunderstood fish of the Fort River! Rivaling beavers for their stream engineering, sea lamprey are a keystone fish species of great ecological importance to both aquatic and riparian life. Hitchcock Center, 525 South Pleasant Street, Amherst.

Saturday, May 21, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. From the Grassroots Up: Stop Incentives for Incinerators. A strategy meeting for activists working to stop biomass and waste burners. Doyle Center, Leominster MA. RSVP: Biomass Accountability Project at 800-729-1363 or stopbiomassburning@gmail.com

Saturday, May 21, 8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. (Rain Date: Sunday, May 22) OLD GROWTH AT DUNBAR BROOK. Visit a spectacular remnant of native old growth forests of the high Berkshires in Monroe in northwest Franklin County. The trees are impressive in size, although the old growth stand is limited to about 150 acres. Pre-registration & fee required, please call the Hitchcock Center at 413-256-6006

Sunday, May 22, All Day. The Rapture......maybe. Prepare to lock-down unless you want to spend eternity with a lot of really strange people. It's that or deal with some nasty guys on horseback.

Sunday, Sunday, May 22, 10am. Manhan Rail Trail Grand Opening Ceremony and Rolling Party. Bike riders and walkers are invited to explore the new rail trail and art spots along the way. Riders can meet at 10am at Millside Park in Easthampton for bagels and musical performances, and then at 11 ride to the Route 10 Bridge. At 12, Mayor Higgins and Mayor Tautznik will cut the ribbon on the Bridge, and afterwards the procession will make its way to a concluding lunch at Veteran's Field in Northampton. Contact: julianecasey@gmail.com

Tuesday, May 31, 5:30pm. CAN organizing meeting. Solar Store of Greenfield, 2 Fiske Ave, Greenfield. Come and get the latest info on ENVY, Entergy's lawsuit, Fukushima catastrophe. Come with ideas for possible actions. Come and help determine the next steps for CAN

Sunday, June 5, 2011, 4-5:30, potluck at 5:30. 7:00pm, meeting. Green-Rainbow Party - Pioneer Valley Chapter. Hitchcock Center for the Environment, 525 South Pleasant Street, Amherst. Call: 413-320-3747.


On June 6, environmental groups, labor unions and other activists and organizations will unite for the March on Blair Mountain, a five-day trek merged with workshops,
cultural festivities and music. On the sixth day, a large rally will be held in Blair, followed by a march to the crest of Blair Mountain. Go to:
MA contact: barefootreehugger@gmail.com or call (304)854-0390

That's all folks. We go out with "De Light", by The Morning Birds and.....until next time, f'get about Osama and Obama, just listen to Yo' Mama!