Patt Morrison for Friday, 11/20/09

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Friday, November 20, 2009

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

1:06 – 1:19

OPEN

 

 

1:30 - 1:58:30

Pay more, pollute more? The problem with carbon off-sets

Carbon offsets, a growing multi-billion dollar global industry, is a simple premise with an altruistic motivation:  purchasing a carbon offset to cancel out the emissions generated by activities like flying or driving, and direct that money to programs that reduce emissions elsewhere.  The developing problem is that carbon offsets are discouraging pollution but rather assuaging the guilt of the polluters.  Travel company Responsible Travel just cancelled its carbon offset program because while it might help customers feel virtuous it wasn’t doing anything to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Is this a fundamental problem with cap-and-trade, carbon offset strategy?

 

Guests:

Justin Francis, CEO of Responsible Travel, which promotes travel that respects and benefits local people and the environment.

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Robert Stavins, professor of business & government at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; director of the Harvard University Environmental Economics Program

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• Stavins also directs the Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, where he has helped to design carbon offset and cap-and-trade programs for private businesses and governments.

 

 

2:06 – 2:19

Gross negligence: the U.S. government’s liability for failed levees

A federal court judge rules that the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the levee breaches which left much of the city of New Orleans underwater after Hurricane Katrina.  The decision has the potential to leave the government venerable to billions of dollars in claims from victims.  The judge gave the corps a lambasting claiming they had a “myriad” of ways to protect the Bernard Parish and the Lower 9^th Ward but showed “insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness” along with “gross negligence” in opting not to do so.  The lead plaintiff’s attorney says Katrina was not a natural disaster but a disaster caused by the Army Corps of Engineers—and apparently, the judge agreed. 

 

Guests:

Pierce O’Donnell, partner in O’Donnell & Associates PC and lead attorney for the plaintiff

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2:21 – 2:30

OPEN

 

 

2:30 – 2:58:30

OBAMANOS!

Hendrik Herzberg’s byline in the New Yorker guarantees a wise, edgy and compelling   exposition of the body politic and political bodies. His new book Obamanos! is all about the year of living presidentially, offering context to key elements that defined the 2008 general election while telling the story of a reinvigoration of the Democratic Party alongside a Republican tailspin.

 

Guests:

Hendrik Herzberg, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of “Obamanos!: The Rise of a New Political Era”

IN STUDIO

 

 

Jonathan Serviss

Producer, Patt Morrison Program

Southern California Public Radio

NPR Affiliate for Los Angeles

89.3 KPCC-FM | 89.1 KUOR-FM | 90.3-KPCV-FM

626.585.7821, office

415.497.2131, mobile

jserviss@kpcc.org / jserviss@scpr.org

www.scpr.org