RE: Patt Morrison for Thursday, December 8, 2011

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Thursday, December 8, 2011

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 –1:30 OPEN

 

1:30 – 1:58:30

Biggest jump in carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution: have we stopped caring about climate change?  
Despite the mounting scientific evidence and warnings about the effects of climate change, an extra half –billion tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere last year. The Global Carbon Project, an international group of scientists, said that global emissions rose 5.9 percent in 2010, marking the largest single year increase since the Industrial Revolution. With surging economies in the developing world and powerful industrialized nations reluctant to take significant steps to curb emissions, experts worry that we are approaching a climate “tipping point” – the point at which human-influenced climate change will be irreversible. The International Energy Agency warns that if we don’t change course, the Earth’s temperature could climb 11 degrees Fahrenheit.  If that happens, we could see catastrophic environmental hazards including massive water shortages around the world, significant extinction, harm to agriculture and food production, floods, lung disease, heat waves and malnutrition.  Is the scientific community sounding unnecessary alarms or does their data reflect a dire situation? Why, if the science is so strong, isn’t the U.S., China and the world doing more to halt the global impacts of climate change? Will the United Nations Climate Change conference in Durban, South Africa make a difference?

 

Guests:

UNCONFIRMED

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca) Chairman, Environment and Public Works Committee; Boxer delivered a message to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Durban, South Africa [currently in progress—it ends on December 9, 2011]

 

UNCONFIRMED

Rep., Global Carbon Project

Rep., Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo

Rep., Union of Concerned Scientists

 

2:06 – 2:30

Is your lotion, sunscreen and make-up making you sick? Toxic chemicals in beauty and health products aren’t regulated
In the United States, cosmetic ingredients are not under the FDA’s jurisdiction. The Center for Disease Control lists the skin as the “most common path of toxic substance exposure,” and yet millions of women (and men) fail to do their due diligence when it comes to their beauty routines.  According the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that maintains a list of cosmetic ingredients and their potential effects, your make-up can be responsible for endocrine disruption and developmental problems, and that’s only the beginning of the story—Brazilian Blowout Smoothing Solution was found to contain formaldehyde and methylene glycol, both of which are carcinogens. In November, the People of the State of California filed papers to enjoin sales of the Smoothing Solution. Would you like to see cosmetics regulated by the FDA? Are you aware of how many dangerous chemicals are in your beauty products?

Guest:

Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

Rebecca Sutton, senior scientist, Environmental Working Group, a non profit organization working to limit toxic chemicals in consumer products

 

2:30 – 2:50

Who will rule the Internet?

In the media age, the life cycle of every new invention – from the telephone to radio to film – included a sort of Wild West phase of free range entrepreneurs and visionaries. But in time, all of them settled into a period that was dominated by a monopolist or corporate cartel. In his new book, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires,” author and professor, Tim Wu, posits that the Internet – the driving force of modern media commerce – may very well suffer the same fate. Could the information superhighway be ruled by a singular corporate giant with its own agenda? Or is the Internet dynamic enough to break the paradigm?  

 

Guest:

Tim Wu, author, policy advocate, and professor at Columbia University; currently a senior advisor to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

 

2:50 – 2:58:30

“There is no frigate like a book”: Carol Muske-Dukes and the value of memorizing poetry.

A mother pushes her daughter on a swing, reciting a line of Robert Louis Stevenson’s, “How do you like to go up in a swing, up in the air so blue?”  The daughter replies with the rest of the stanza, “Oh, I do think it’s the pleasantest thing ever a child can do!” This year a poet, Tomas Transtomer, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and with the award ceremony taking place this weekend, California’s Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes joins Patt to talk about the importance of not just reading, but memorizing and reciting poetry in today’s digital-visual age.  If we’re lucky, she’ll share more stories about her poetry-filled childhood, too.

 

Guest:

Carol Muske-Dukes, California’s Poet Laureate and professor of English and creative writing at the University of Southern California