In this episode, we delve into the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, examining the underlying causes and the lessons we can learn. Economics Professor Richard Wolff critiques the blame game often played by political figures and industries, emphasizing instead the systemic issues rooted in profit-driven motives. We explore the impact of climate change and the urgent need for systemic change to prioritize safety over profit. Additionally, we gain insights from Dr. Michael Mann on the scientific community's understanding of climate change's role in exacerbating such disasters. The episode also touches on Lakota spirituality with David Little Elk, offering a unique perspective on humanity's connection to the elements and the importance of respecting nature.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio 

Sources:
Wolff Responds: "The Lesson California's Fires Should Teach Us" Dated January 15, 2025 from Democracy at Work
https://x.com/profwolff/status/1879582067283132509 

Michael Mann on SiriusXM with Zerlina Maxwell Discussing California Wildfires (JAN 13 2025)

https://youtu.be/bH4bWFON--Y?si=u0avZazGFoqFaU2x 

David Little Elk Lakota Spirituality Fire People

https://youtu.be/n6bCO6_g7LM?si=ggho-tLq4Hp0dRhA 


Richard D. Wolff [https://www.rdwolff.com/] is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Prof Wolff is the co-founder of Democracy at Work [https://www.democracyatwork.info/] and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update.

Dr. Michael E. Mann [https://michaelmann.net/] is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He also serves as Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action and Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM).

David Little Elk, [https://wolakota7.com/] an Itazipco-Sicangu Lakota Sioux, is a Lakota Language and Spirituality Teacher, and a Spiritual Advisor and Consultant.



Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.




Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ 
Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ 
Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio
PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url  
Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt
Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats
Episode 246
Photo credit: Josh Field via Pexels

Climate Crisis Ignites: Why L.A.'s Fires Are a Wake-Up Call

Vishal Bhardwaj is Group Head, CSR, at Dalmia Bharat Limited and CEO, Dalmia Bharat Foundation. Headquartered in New Delhi. Dalmia Bharat Group is a business conglomerate with an interest in Cement, Sugar, Refractory, and Power operations in India. Founded in 1935, the group enjoys a long heritage of more than 80 years. Vishal has been in the Social Development and CSR circuit for the last 23 years and during this period, he has worked with the Government of India, a leading NGO, and 2 leading Cement companies before joining the Dalmia Bharat Group. He holds a Master's degree in Social Work and a Diploma in CSR from the Swedish Institute of Management, Stockholm.

He has also undergone a Management Development Program at the prestigious SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. He is a Certified Sustainability Assessor of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development. He has been awarded the Responsible Business Leader Award at the Responsible Business Summit and has also been amongst the 100 most impactful CSR leaders (Global Listing) listed by World CSR Day and World Sustainability. He is currently the Co-Chair of the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Skills Committee in East and North-East.

#harshapodcast #harshaintersction #VishalBhardwaj #iicsr #csr

LIGC with Mr Vishal Bhardwaj CEO Dalmia Bharat Foundation

We pay tribute to the late Mike Davis to explore the ongoing ecological crises facing Southern California and the socio-political dynamics that shape our responses to disaster. This is an intellectual tour de force as Davis goes deep in this recording from 1995 at the architectural school SCI-Arc, where he taught at the time. He outlines the history of damage caused by natural disasters in Southern California. Popular culture seems fascinated with the destruction of Los Angeles, and most recent events have breathed life into that narrative. 

Support the Podcast via PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url 

Davis discusses the complexity of California’s Mediterranean climate, arguing for a new “environmental epistemology.” He calls for a rethinking of California’s resource and disaster planning. Noting the extreme hydroclimatic shifts throughout California history, he suggests a disruption of capitalist hydraulic civilization in California is inevitable–and here we are. We are in serious need of an environmental rethink in any rebuilding–or rewilding–plans.

For an extended interview and other benefits, become an EcoJustice Radio patron at https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio 

More Mike Davis: https://wilderutopia.com/ecojustice-radio/tribute-to-the-late-urban-history-provocateur-mike-davis/

Sources:
Full show of Mike Davis 1995 Presentation from SCI-Arc https://youtu.be/evJpgKQ6YWU?si=oPJ_rzpI-45oIHys 

Mike Davis, who passed away in 2022, was a writer and urban theorist who is most known for his work demythologizing the fractured wild-urban landscape of Southern California. Once a meat cutter and a truck driver, he was Professor Emeritus at University of California, Riverside, a Macarthur Fellow, and the author of more than 20 books. He is best known for his investigations of power and social class in works such as City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (1990) and Late Victorian Holocausts (2001). In this show we focus on his book, “The Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster.”


Jack Eidt is an urban planner, environmental journalist, and climate organizer, as well as award-winning fiction writer. He is Co-Founder of SoCal 350 Climate Action and Executive Producer of EcoJustice Radio. He writes a column on PBS SoCal called High & Dry [https://www.pbssocal.org/people/high-dry]. He is also Founder and Publisher of WilderUtopia [https://wilderutopia.com], a website dedicated to the question of Earth sustainability, finding society-level solutions to environmental, community, economic, transportation and energy needs.


Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ 
Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ 
Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio
PayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url  
Executive Producer and Host: Jack Eidt
Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats
Episode 247
Photo credit: Ecology of Fear cover

Mike Davis On Southern California’s Landscape of Disaster

For generations, the inhabitants of Thar have lived in harmony with nature — spending their lives in chaunras or rooms made of mud, straw, and wood. That harmony, however, is being seriously  undermined by coal development now. 

In this episode of our podcast, we record the fears, frustrations and anger of the residents of Thario Halepoto, a village overshadowed  by Pakistan’s larger coal mine located in Tharparkar district, over their impending displacement from their traditional abodes.

Kacheri (EP-03): Where there is coal, there is also the fear of displacement

Tharis are a resilient people. They have survived a harsh weather and a hard terrain for centuries. With the advent of coal development around their villages, however, they are facing a new menace: ever-rising health hazards. 

This episode of Kacheri documents how women, children and older people in village after village are suffering from respiratory and skin diseases they never knew before. Cancer cases are also being reported from many villages even though local people were unfamiliar with it until recently. This, they allege, is happening to them because coal has contaminated their water and poisoned their air.

Kacheri (EP-04): Coal creates a burden of disease that no one is talking about

People of Thar revere their home soil as Mother Earth that generates and nourishes life in all its forms. In at least one local village, Khario Ghulam Shah, this deep-rooted reverence is facing a serious test. The villagers here complain that huge slices of mud slide down to their farms, backyards and livestock pens every monsoon from the high walls that buttress a nearby coal mine. They allege that these walls have been built in such a way that they block rainwater from seeping back into the mine and instead force it flow to the village in torrents carrying huge amounts of mud along with them.
 
This episode of Kacheri reveals how helpless the villagers feel while facing this destructive force of their otherwise beloved soil.

Kacheri (EP-05): A disaster happens every time it rains over the coal mine

Paper Title:
Rebuilding Syria on Brittle Ground: Why Environmental Justice Cannot Wait

Date:
17 June 2025

Publishers: 
LUGARIT + The New Arab

Authors: 
Omar Abdulaziz Hallaj + Nihad Alamiri

Summary:
Rebuilding Syria demands integrating environmental justice as a central pillar, not an afterthought. Environmental degradation has economic, ethical, and political consequences. Green recovery is a shared responsibility—and a strategic opportunity. Regulatory safeguards, community engagement, and sustainable investment practices must guide reconstruction to restore both state legitimacy and ecological resilience.

Link:
https://link.lugarit.com/PBvW

Photo: 
Children search for recyclable scraps amid heaps of garbage near the town of Qah, in northern Idlib near the Syrian-Turkish border. In the absence of basic services and livelihood opportunities, many families rely on informal waste collection to survive. 1 October 2020.  Photo © Muhammad al-Rifai/NurPhoto - via Alamy.


Rebuilding Syria on Brittle Ground: Why Environmental Justice Cannot Wait

العنوان 
البيئة المنسية... الفاتورة المؤجّلة للإعمار

تاريخ النشر
١٧ حزيران ٢٠٢٥

الناشر 
لوغاريت + العربي الجديد

المؤلف
عمر عبد العزيز الحلاج 

الخلاصة
تتطلب إعادة الإعمار في سوريا إدماج العدالة البيئية كمكون أساسي وليس كأمر ثانوي، فتدهور البيئة له عواقب اقتصادية وسياسية. التعافي البيئي المبكر مسؤولية مشتركة وفرصة استراتيجية لتفعيل المشاركة المجتمعية والممارسات الاستثمارية المستدامة.

الرابط 
https://link.lugarit.com/PBvW

الصورة
أطفال يبحثون وسط أكوام النفايات قرب بلدة قاح في ريف إدلب الشمالي، بالقرب من الحدود السورية التركية. في ظل غياب الخدمات الأساسية وفرص كسب العيش، تعتمد العديد من العائلات على جمع النفايات للبقاء. ١ تشرين الأول ٢٠٢٠. الصورة © محمد الرفاعي / نور فوتو - عبر ألامي.



البيئة المنسية... الفاتورة المؤجّلة للإعمار

Join us as we explore the urgent landscape of sustainability, identifying pressing challenges and immense opportunities for impactful change. This podcast discusses the evolving role of sustainability in business strategy, the importance of ethical practices, and the transformative potential of emerging technologies and collaborative efforts. With a focus on practical solutions, we aim to inspire sustainability professionals and advocates to take decisive action toward a resilient and equitable future.

Shaping a Sustainable Future: From Challenges to Opportunities

The Deputy Chief defends the idea that the purpose of the Joint SDG Fund is to find and scale up innovative perspectives aimed towards the realization of Agenda 2030. An innovative approach is to be found in the structure of the funds, based on risk-sharing to attract private capital. Sustainable development appears as a reachable option.

UN Deputy Chief calls for Stronger SDG Partnerships

Harsha in her podcasts series covers all her interactions with eminent people creating impact on society. The show Live interactions with global changemakers and Youth Questions are interactions with the Corporate Honchos and publicly elected political leaders. It emphasizes strategy to implementation of sustainable development goals and integration of Responsible business practices. The conversations are focussed on understanding the journey to find solutions of complex problems in growing business in tandem with social development.

She is also a poet and in her album universal messages she recites some of her finest words.

LUGARIT is a small think tank active in international development.

Bringing together the United Nations development system to deliver on the Global Goals for people and planet.

EcoJustice Radio presents environmental and climate stories from a social justice frame, featuring voices not necessarily heard on mainstream media.

Our purpose is to amplify community voices, broaden the reach of grassroots-based movements, and inspire action. We investigate solutions for social, environmental, and climate issues with an eye to advance human health, steward wild landscapes, and solve the climate crisis across the USA and the world.

Featured weekly on KPFK Los Angeles and KPFT Houston, and found on all major podcast apps. We are nationally syndicated through the Pacifica Network and PRX and heard on public radio stations across the US and downloaded in over 25 countries.

Co-hosts Jack Eidt, Carry Kim, and Jessica Aldridge present a broad range of perspectives: land defenders and water protectors; Indigenous leaders, front/fenceline community spokespeople; youth organizers; ecosystem and land stewards; regenerative farmers and permaculture specialists; spiritual and faith leaders; environmental health advocates and practitioners; documentary filmmakers; climate scientists; and political decision makers.

EcoJustice Radio [http://EcoJusticeRadio.org] is produced by SoCal350.org since 2017. 

Tune in live to KPFK Radio Thursdays from 4 to 5 PM (PT) at 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 93.7 FM North San Diego, 99.5 FM Ridgecrest-China Lake, or KPFK.org. 

We also are featured on KPFT Houston from 4 to 5 PM (CT) at 90.1 FM or KPFT.org and other public radio stations on the Pacifica Network.

New tracks tagged #sustainabledevelopment