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Desert Treasures Threatened Thursday, 10 November 2011 For Ruth Nolan the desert is filled with stories, alive, ecologically and multiculturally rich, comprised of diverse landscapes. Ruth Nolan, M.A., is a native of the Mojave Desert and Associate Professor of English at the College of the Desert near Palm Springs, California. She is also a poet, writer, and book editor/publisher, former BLM-California Desert District firefighter, and has extensively hiked, traveled, and embraced the essence of her desert homeland. She has been crusading to raise awareness and protect sacred sites, dense ecologic flora/fauna zones, endangered species, in particular the desert tortoise, and the people who live and breathe in the desert. Their lives are threatened by the federal government's renewable energy policy, the false characterization of the Californian deserts as big, open "wastelands...." the mentality behind thinking that chunks of the desert can be chopped up and allotted to multi-thousand acre sites. Ruth Nolan is editor of the new anthology, No Place for a Puritan: the literature of California’s deserts, published by Heyday Books. She was awarded a Joshua Tree National Park Affiliate Writers Residency for 2008-09, and collaborated on a film about the park with the UCR/California Museum of Photography. Her poetry has appeared in many literary publications, including Inlandia: a Literary Journey Through Southern California’s Inland Empire, Poemeleon, Askew, Pacific Review, Epicenter, Mosaic, Southern California Haiku Journal, and San Diego Poetry Annual. She co-edits Phantom Seed, a bi-annual literary magazine dedicated to the nuances of the California desert, and is advisor to the College of the Desert literary/visual arts magazine, Solstice. Her poetry collections include Wild Wash Road (1996) and Dry Waterfall (2008.) She lectures and speaks widely on desert literature and related topics, such as desert conservation and California Indian culture. She believes that the paradigm/thinking needs to shift from "destroying more pristine land" towards "subsidizing more localized renewable energy for homeowners, businesses, communities, public institutions on already-reclaimed land" in order to "go green." She recognizes the problem with the enormous gifts to corporate "investors," who have already taken money, failed to deliver, and are now bankrupt, i.e., Solyndra. She's concerned that the "whole" desert, is at risk by the many proposed solar/wind

Guests: Louise Dunlap Linda Seeley San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace is helping to organize the SACRED SITES PEACEWALK FOR A NUCLEAR FREE WORLD. They have been working hard to shut down Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power plant, especially in the wake of the disaster of Fukushima. Working with the Mothers are a Japanese Buddhist order, including Jun-san and two native American groups dedicated to preserving sacred sites, Indian People Organizing for Change and Protect Glen Cove with Johnella LaRose, another main organizer of the walk. The Diablo Canyon plant was built, over community protest, on a site sacred to the Chumash people. Walking for peace, justice, against the nuclear industry is not a new idea, but a powerful tool to raise awareness, build community and draw public attention and support to the important struggles that are far too often ignored by the press. Recently there have been anti-nuclear walks in Australia, France and New England. The first Wall Street occupation only attracted a handful of people and, I hope that the occupations and walks will continue to attract more and more people and support, as they weave those powerful bonds of love, friendship, support and understanding that nourish powerful social movements. Louise Dunlap is the author of Undoing the Silence: Tools for Social Change Writing who assists people to make their voices heard in the challenging debates of our times. A longtime advocate for peace and justice, she began her work for social change with the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s, and taught at the University of Massachusetts in the 1970s. Later she taught graduate students in policy and development at M.I.T. and eight other graduate schools including three in South Africa. She has shared struggles for justice with activists from many movements, and participated in peace walks on nuclear weapons, climate change, slavery and racism, the Wounded Knee Massacre, and the Shellmounds of the San Francisco Bay area. She also teaches yoga and Buddhist meditation in the tradition of Vietnamese teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Linda Seeley is president of the board of directors of Terra Foundation, she began offering workshops in The Work that Reconnects," experiential deep ecology training developed by Joanna Macy, PhD in 2003. Linda has worked closely with Joanna for nine years, and she sees the need in the community for expression of feelings related to the current state of the world and all its inhabitants. Linda is a

Kathryn Bedard is a first responder. With a background, experience and training in mental health and disaster relief, she was reassigned following 9/11 by the state to serve as a key member of a team, set up by New Jersey to offer services to survivors and victims' families. The team officially was known as the Family Assistance Center or FAC. Their job was to take victims families to Ground Zero. That experience, witnessing the emotions, stages of grief that people went through was profoundly moving and prompted her to write a book Stones In My Heart Forever: 9-11: A Journey Through Courage, Strength and Hope. She learned about "healing" and "what it means to work in a disaster of that magnitude, where "normal" and healing in the aftermath takes on a whole different meaning. Part of her "healing" experience has been to take part in a motorcycle ride fundraising effort to assist responders for things such as upgraded equipment, and families in the form of scholarships. The huge motorcycle runs also help responders replace the intensity of what is encountered in disasters as one tries to go back to a "normal" life. In the most recent run British firefighters came from the UK, and from as far away as New Zealand, and about 900 others came, as well from across the country: north, south, west...TN, FL, CA, GA... Kathy worked at the WTC site with an amazing group of angels who worked from September through December taking family members and survivors from the towers into Ground Zero to mourn. Every day, including holidays and weekends they took between 80 - 250 individuals into the damage zone. She would gather occasionally with her colleagues as they tried to adjust to life after their time at Ground Zero. She still is part of the Mt Sinai monitoring program. When responders gather together, they focus on celebrating life and each other. None of them knew each other before 9/11, but they all had the sense that they knew each other, they communicated (still) non-verbally, and have ties to each other that are strong as family. Their work was also chronicled in Gail Sheeheys book Middletown America.

Guest: Tod Fletcher Tod Fletcher has assisted David Ray Griffin in the writing of nine books on 9/11 (from The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions to his latest book 9/11 Ten Years Later - When State Crimes against Democracy Succeed). (David Ray Griffin did write an article naming and outlining the chapters at 911Truth.org.) Tod is a co-producer of "Guns and Butter," a weekly radio program on KPFA in Berkeley, CA and WBAI in New York, which has aired many ground-breaking shows on the truth of 9/11 since October, 2001. In 2010 and 2011 he hosted an internet radio program, "9/11 In Context," on which he interviewed top 9/11 truth researchers and scholars around the world, now archived at BlogTalkRadio.com. During this week, both Carol and Tod will be involved with other events including the 9/11 Reclaiming the Truth, Reclaiming Our Future Film Festival which will include some live streaming of the Toronto Hearings, and the Tenth Annual 9/11 Truth Rally/March,

From Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore - Confronting the Two Headed Nuclear Dragon Jacqueline Cabasso has been involved in nuclear disarmament, peace and environmental advocacy at the local, national and international levels for over 30 years. Since 1984 she has served as Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation in Oakland. Grounded in commitments to nonviolence and international law, in her work with the Foundation she has provided legal support for nonviolent protesters; engaged in environmental review proceedings and litigation to challenge nuclear programs, and organized grassroots multi-issue coalitions. Most recently, she has spoken out at rallies and hearings in support of the Japanese and American people to shut down nuclear power plants, particularly those on active faults, and against the twin nuclear weapons industry. With renewed concern over the threat of nuclear power and weapons, many anti-nuclear events are coming up in the Bay Area, including- July 23, 7 pm in San Jose - Screening of Atomic Mom Tuesday, July 26, 2011 - 10:00 am in Sacramento California Energy Commission review of California's nukes, in light of Fukushima, review of industry's seismic knowledge and emergency preparedness. July 26, 11:55 pm -Vandenberg Space Command (yes before midnight- these are dedicated folk)- Vigil/Protest Against ICBM Launch August 3, 6:30 pm in Oakland - Screening of The Forgotten Bomb August 4, 7:00 pm in San Jose - Screening of The Forgotten Bomb August 5, in San Francisco - Commemorate Hiroshima/Nagasaki - Lessons of Fukushima for Today August 6, 6 pm in Livermore - From Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore: Confronting the Two-Headed Dragon of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power ( August 7, 3 pm in Mountain View - MUSE Concert (Crosby Stills, Nash, Jackson Browne... a benefit for Sane Energy, and Japan, anti-nuclear groups) August 9, 8 am in Livermore - From Hiroshima to Fukushima to Livermore: Confronting the Two-Headed Dragon of Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power (Direct Action) From HIroshima to Fukishima to California Thursday, August 11 2011 @ 06:00 PM - - 08:00PM in San Jose From HIroshima to Fukishima to California Speakers on- the danger of nuclear power and nuclear weapons. At the national level Ms. Cabasso serves on the Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice and convenes its Nuclear Disarmament/Redefining Security working group. Internationally, she is a leading voice for the abolition of nuclear weapons,

Water - Protecting the Essence of Life Adam Scow Flow: For Love of Water is a powerful film that looks at the privatization of the world's water, the displacement of millions of indigenous people to build dams, control the flow of water, generate electricity, and at those who have benefited and been impoverished through the control of a substance critical to life. Adam Scow is the California Campaigns Director at Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization. He is responsible for developing strategy for local, state, and national campaigns. He currently serves on the planning committee for the annual California Water Policy Conference sponsored by Public Officials for Water and Environment Reform. Previously, Adam researched California irrigation subsidies and water transfers in Washington D.C.. We look at the major threats to water taking place throughout the world, and in particular the United States, California, and the need for citizen involvement and awareness on every level to safe guard their health, their children, their communities, and the future. In particular we look at the crumbling water infrastructure and need to maintain it, the threat of privatization, fracking, corruption of government officials, the big money pushing big projects for private gain at public expense, bottled water, bottled water industry, desalinization, monitoring water for radioactivity, organizing locally and successfully. If you need help in your community to protect your water Food & Water Watch is a great resource, building a grassroots movment to regain control over vital aspects of our lives. Other great films on water- Thirst - Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water,Tapped, The Water Front, Liquid Assets, Blue Gold - World Water Wars, and (believe it or not) Chinatown which takes place during the California Water Wars, when Los Angeles got control over Owen's River (emptying Owen's Lake).

In 1979 Don Eichelberger joined the Abalone Alliance which formed in 1977 to oppose the construction of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant using non-violent direct action. Don began by participating in a 38 day sit-in at the capital offices of then-Governor, Jerry Brown, in an effort to get him to use his emergency powers to shut down the Rancho Seco Reactor, a twin of Three Mile Island. Don was a core organizer in Sonoma County for direct civil disobedience actions at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Reactor in 1981 and 1984. He also worked on a number of other campaigns during those years, including exposing the annual secret summer retreat of the ruling elite at Bohemian Grove, along the Russian River in Sonoma County. In 1984, he helped transition the statewide organizing office of the Abalone Alliance in San Francisco into the non-profit safe energy clearinghouse it is today. Over the years, the all-volunteer staff have continued to lend organizing support and do local outreach on behalf of stopping nuclear power and promoting safe, alternative energy as well as supporting the causes of peace and social justice. During 1985-87, he helped produce a weekly radio show on KUSF, called "Rad Radio- Radioactivity." As DJ Abel Tudu, he helped with the events calendar, music, theater and coverage of protest events. Since 1984, among other efforts, Abalone Alliance Safe Energy Clearinghouse have: * organized a local chapter of Big Mountain Support Group to protest uranium mining on native lands; * acted as interveners in PG&E's efforts before the Public Utilities Commission to pay for Diablo Canyon's ten fold cost overrun; * during 1990-94, they helped establish the term "environmental justice" while helping organize People's Earth Days in Bayview-Hunter's Point; * gave organizing support to oppose South African Apartheid, worked to protect old growth forests from tree cutting at Headwaters, and called for an end to US involvement in Central America; and * were instrumental in initiating the successful effort to stop the proposed Ward Valley Nuclear Waste Dump from dumping so-called "low-level" nuclear wastes in to unlined trenches in critical habitat for endangered species; * was also instrumental in the late-1980's helping found the emerging US Green Movement/Party, including a coordinating role in writing the Green Platform planks on Nuclear Power, Safe Energy and Nuclear Waste.. The evolving Energy Net website is a wealth of historical information, as well as

Christopher Rudy, is a radio talk-show host of ‘Cosmic Love'. Having developed three holistic health centers over 20 years, specializing in ultramolecular 'quantum medicine', Christopher looks at the radiation issue now as a potential ‘trigger event’ of serious consequences. His concern is that many have already been whacked by the accumulated effect of airport scanners, CAT scans, mammograms, X-rays, cell phones and electronic pollution in general. Is the Fukushima meltdown like a giant dirty bomb on steroids? Do you wonder if there’s a cover-up as to serious long-term dangers? Would you agree that your immune system is your first line of defense against the mutagenic effect of radiation fallout? Christopher’s recent article, ‘Radiation Alert - Be Aware and Prepare’ highlights his concerns… that the short and long time affect across America will be accelerated degradation of our already stressed-out immune systems in general and afflicted DNA health in particular. DNA repair, regeneration and immune system rejuvenation is the subject of life-extension which is really the cellular ‘reboot’ issue with the dangers of ionizing radiation. DNA is the blueprint of health, and the aging process correlates directly to the breakdown of the ability of the body to replicate healthy DNA. There are spiritual, mental, emotional and physical components to a holistic process for optimizing a healthy immune system with DNA integrity. Synergy of these all-connected factors is where the best results naturally occur. Or as Christopher says, “Pure intention focuses attention for our whole health’s ascension.” Masaru Emoto wrote- "When we describe the meaning of Japanese word 'Fukushima', 'Fuku' means 'lucky' and 'shima' is 'island'. Let's make the disaster bring good luck!" Let us hope a deeper understanding of what is going on will be the catalyst for a transformation of human consciousness to assist us from the path of self destruction towards healing and conscious evolution. Our visionary guest, Christopher Rudy, has a deep knowledge of healing, systems, and seeing the larger patterns and cycles in human development. I edited a book years ago entitled The Invisible Nuclear War: The Effects of Low-level Radiation, the Massive Government Cover-up, and the Continuing Battle waged by the Nuclear Powers Against All Life on Earth and recently an article entitled Nuclear Family, Nuclear Stories. Together, we will discuss finding balance, maintaining