Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Academia, Activism & Business Come Together on Energy Futures To Discuss Copenhagen Targets

Now we’re getting somewhere; the President has announced he’ll attend the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and is prepared to offer tentative targets for reducing US greenhouse gas emissions.

It should be good material for our next Energy Futures program on Hawaii Public Radio. Our guests will be Copenhagen delegate and presenter Maxine Burkett, director of the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy at the University of Hawaii law school; Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation, and Jim Tollefson, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.

You’re invited to tune in to the program, which airs “live” 5-6 pm HST Monday on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and via HPR’s website with audio streaming. Listeners can call in with their questions and comments at 941-3689 on Oahu and 1-877-941-3689 from the neighbor islands and beyond.

Next Generation Already Participating on Climate

James Koshiba and Carol Feinga were this week's guests.
Energy Futures joins the rest of the planet in directing our attention toward Copenhagen, Denmark, where the officially named Conference of Participants will attempt to hammer out an agreement among 192 nations to cut greenhouse gases in the decades ahead.

Our guests on our most recent program (11/23) were Carol Feinga from the Kokua Hawaii Foundation and James Koshiba of Kanu Hawaii. Our topic was educating the next generation(s) about the consequences of climate change and sea level riser. The program can be accessed at Hawaii Public Radio’s website.

Guests next week on Energy Futures will include Copenhagen delegate Maxine Burkett, director of the Center on Climate Adaptation and Policy at the University of Hawaii law school; Jeff Mikulina, executive director of the Blue Planet Foundation, and Jim Tollefson, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii. We’ll examine climate issues from our island perspective.

Energy Futures airs “live” 5-6 pm HST Mondays on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and is streamed at that time at HPR’s website. Listeners can call in with their questions and comments at 941-3689 on Oahu and 1-877-941-3689 from the neighbor islands and beyond.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Will Next Generation Pursue Copenhagen’s Goals?

Hawaii has as much as any society hanging on the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, which convenes two weeks from tomorrow. Sea level rise assessments for this century range from 25 centimeters to a meter, and those are so-called “conservative” estimates.

Someone recently said sea level rise wouldn’t be a problem for Hawaii, since the state’s mean elevation is 3,035 feet. “We all can move to the Big Island,” he said – in jest. Obviously, anything approaching or exceeding a meter of rise will have profound effects on the islands’ population, most of whom either live or work in neighborhoods where even periodic high water incursion would be life-changing.

No matter what happens in Copenhagen, the current generation of grade school and junior high school students and those not yet born will have to live with the results. They’ll be the ones to carry the fight against climate change throughout this century.

They will, won’t they?

One would think so. The generation that’s convening in Copenhagen certainly expects that fight to continue long after they’re no longer on the scene. Energy Futures tomorrow will focus on what’s being done locally to prepare the younger generation for the effort their elders want them – actually, expect them – to pursue.

Our guests will be Carol Feinga from the Kokua Hawaii Foundation and James Koshiba of Kanu Hawaii. Both organizations have programs in place to instill a sense of ownership among young people for the century-long environmental issues they’ll face.

Energy Futures airs “live” 5-6 pm HST Mondays on KIPO-FM (89.3 in Hawaii) and is streamed at that time at Hawaii Public Radio’s website. Listeners can call in with their questions and comments at 941-3689 on Oahu and 1-877-941-3689 from the neighbor islands and beyond.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Dr. Stephen Schneider Returns as Show’s Guest


Dr. Stephen Schneider has answers for global warming deniers.

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July 19, 2010 Update: Dr. Stephen Schneider died this date in Europe. Our "Energy Futures" interview has been archived on the Internet.
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We can’t get enough of acclaimed climate scientist Dr. Stephen Schneider of Stanford University and a member of the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That's why we’re replaying our interview with him that originally aired on Hawaii Public Radio’s KIPO-FM on August 17. (Travel has necessitated some taped programs recently, but we’ll resume our live-in-the-studio shows on November 23.)

With the Copenhagen Climate Conference just weeks away, Schneider’s views are as timely as ever. Do yourself a favor and learn a thing or two you probably didn't already kinow by tuning in at 89.3 in Hawaii or use the streaming link on the Internet “live” at 5 pm HST Monday, November 16 (10 pm EST).

Monday, November 9, 2009

An Anniversary, a Birthday, and a Show on OTEC

We’re lagging behind in our posts here – the regrettable consequence of some travel, so we missed posting here about the November 2nd Energy Futures show on hydrogen as an energy source. The archived program can still be accessed for a few weeks.

But today’s show is something we’re compelled to write about, notwithstanding today being the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall to the irresistible force of democracy. (We have a personal enthusiasm for the anniversary, having been stationed in West Berlin in some of the coldest days of the Cold War in the 1960s.) And it’s also the birthday of our younger son, who became a teenager on that fateful day in 1989. Our world changed, indeed!

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion gets a full hour of discussion and hopeful speculation today on Energy Futures, Hawaii Public Radio’s weekly energy-focused program. Guests are Hans Krock and Gerhard Nihous, both affiliated with the University of Hawai`i and both long-time OTEC advocates, researchers and would-be developers.

It's the OTEC Hour, so please tune in 5-6 pm HST today on KIPO-FM, 89.3 in Hawaii; the show will be streamed live on the Internet and later archived at the same site as shown above.