'Five Till Midnight or Almost Time for Lunch' by Flickr (cc) user bitzcelt.

From Egypt to Wisconsin, and from Wall Street to any town USA, 2011 was a year in which people raised their voices to call for justice. As we head into 2012, there’s optimism about the possibilities for change. On this edition, we look back at some the most important issues of 2011: attacks on organized labor, the Egyptian revolution, and the struggle to address climate change. We’ll hear highlights from some of the best programs we’ve brought you this year, and get some updates on where those stories stand now.

Shows featured in this program include:

Who Won the Egyptian Revolution?

The Wisconsin Workers Uprising   (Part 1)  (Part 2)

Battle for Workers Rights on the Ballot in Ohio

Climate Change Gridlock: Where Do We Go From Here? (Part 1)  (Part 2)

Featuring:

Shimaa Helmy, Egyptian human rights activist; Pedro De Sa, ILWU local 6 Rank and File organizer; Kris Hirsh, Stand up For Ohio spokesman; Melissa Fezekas, We Are Ohio spokesperson; Larry Cohen, Communications Workers of America President; Rich Trumka, AFL-CIO President; Fred Risser, Wisconsin State Senator; Khalid Shalid, Tahrir square protestor; Salma Shukrallah, Al Ahram Online journalist; Tarek Shalaby, Tahrir Square leader; James Inhofe, US Senator from Oklahoma; Bernaditas Mueller, South Centre climate change special advisor; Patrick Bond, Center for Civil Society Director at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa; Mike Ludwig, Truthout reporter; Brian Edwards-Tiekert, journalist.

***WEB EXCLUSIVES***

What Happened in Durban?

Interview with reporter Brian Edwards Tiekert about the 2011 climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

How are Occupy and organized labor Working together?

Interview With ILWU Local 6 rank and file organizer Pedro De Sa about the state of labor in the U.S., and how the Occupy movement is working with unions.

1 year later—what has the Egyptian revolution achieved?

An interview with Egyptian human rights activist Shimaa Helmy.

For More Information:

No Military Trials For Civilians
Shimaa Tahrir
Al-Ahram Online
Muslim Brotherhood
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
ILWU
Occupy Wall Street
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
Workers Independent News
WORT Community Radio-Madison, WI
Wisconsin AFL-CIO
Communications Workers of America
We the People Campaign
Campaign Cash
Stand Up For Ohio
We Are Ohio
ALEC exposed
Truthout
The Media Consortium
Durban Platform
Climate Signals-An Inventory of Climate Change Impact Reports
Skeptical Science
Mobilization for Climate Justice
Center for Civil Society, University of Kwazulu-Natal
Indigenous Environmental Network
The South Centre
COP17 in Durban, South Africa

Books/Articles:

Tina Gerhardt: Get It Done! Youth to UN on Internationally Binding Climate Treaty
Scenes From a Revolution

Music:

“Hurt Me Soul” by Lupe Fiasco
“The Coolest” by Lupe Fiasco

Honey Bee on Winter Aconite. Credit: Tie Guy II/ flickr

Honey bees help pollinate 1 in every 3 bites that we eat… They are vital in our agricultural industry and essential for the survival of the almost 7 billion people who inhabit this planet. And, as the world’s population continues to grow, so does our reliance on honey bees. Unfortunately, most pollinating insects throughout the world are endangered today, including the honey bee. On this edition, we’ll discuss the honey bee’s fight to survive amidst a rapidly changing landscape filled with pesticides and parasites. We will also learn the latest about colony collapse disorder and hear from beekeepers, researchers, and gardeners who are trying to protect them.

Featuring:

Hannah Nordhaus, author of the Beekeepers Lament- How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed the World; Gretchen Lebuhn, San Francisco State University professor & founder of The Great Sunflower Project; John Miller, migratory beekeeper; Brian Johnson, University of California, Davis’s entomology professor; Bill Rhodes, David Hackenberg, beekeepers; Dee Lusby, Organic Beekeeping discussion group founder; Dennis Van Engelsdorp,  Penn State University entomology scientist; Vince Rosato, Great Sunflower project participant; Khaled Almaghafi, beekeeper & Bee Healthy Honey Shop owner.

Special thanks to the producers of Vanishing of The Bees and Claire Schoen.

—WEB SEGMENTS—

The Great Sunflower Project

Esther Manilla reports on a citizen-led effort to count bees, in order to assess the health of our local environments.

Bee Rescue Service Makes a Housecall

Khaled Almaghafi is not only a beekeeper, he rescues bees when other people want to have them removed. 

For More Information:

Vanishing of the Bees
The Beekeeper’s Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America
XERCES Society 
Bee Healthy Honey Shop
Harry Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California at Davis
The Great Sunflower Project
Organic Beekeeping Society
Attracting Native Pollinators
Hannah Nordhaus
Gretchen Lebuhn
Dee Lusby

Articles, Blogs, Reports and Videos:

EU bans GM-contaminated honey from general sale
Globalisation and agriculture industry exacerbating bee decline, says UN
As bee colonies die, beekeepers face challenge finding replacements
Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves
A STICKY BUSINESS: Dakota’s Busy Beekeepers 
The Almond and the Bee
As honeybees decline, beekeeping booms By Candace Krebs
Forget climate change – the bees are buzzing off
How sweet it is – The economics of beekeeping in Oakland
The Silence of the Bees

Music:

Everybody Loves the Sunshine – Roy Ayers

Credit: Petr Kosina / CIMMYT

Journalist Christian Parenti speaks about his new book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. He connects the effects of climate change to the increasing number of civil wars, ethnic violence, criminality and failed states between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Parenti argues that in the U.S., factions on the right are using climate change as an excuse to push for increased border control and harsh anti-immigrant policies.

Featuring:

Christian Parenti, contributing editor at The Nation, a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at The Nation Institute, and a visiting scholar at the City University of New York. He is the author of Tropic of Chaos, Lockdown America, The Soft Cage, and The Freedom.

AUDIO/Video EXTRAS:

Christian Parenti’s full length talk with questions and answers:

For more information:

Christian Parenti
The International Programme on the State of the Ocean
The Nature Conservancy
Climate Reality
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Conservation International
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
Crossing Zero: The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire
Invisible History

Articles/Videos

Tribes in Kenya Wage Water War
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan Opium Survey 2011
Despair takes toll on Indian farmers
Race, Migration and the Environment: The Anti-immigrant Movement’s Greening of Hate

Music:

Michael Franti – Hey World (Don’t Give Up)
The Coup – The Stand

Photo by Irene Florez

Women are gaining influence as leaders throughout the world, fighting for peace, justice, the environment, and civil society. On this program we profile a dynamic partnership between the Women’s Earth Alliance and the Global Women’s Water Initiative: working on women’s rights to water, land, farming and basic human dignity.

This is a special collaboration with Lynn Feinerman and Crown Sephira Productions.

Featuring:

Rucha Chitnis, director, Women’s Earth Alliance India; Maame Yelbert-Obeng, Women’s Earth Alliance Africa; Gemma Bulos, director, Global Women’s Water Initiative; Sandra Hay, CEO and filmmaker, Unseen Pictures; Mama Catherine, activist in Cameroon.
Note: Vandana Shiva is an international advisor for Women’s Earth Alliance. She is not on the board, as stated on the program.  We apologize for the error.

For More Information:

Women’s Earth Alliance
Global Women’s Water Initiative

Women Rising
WEA-Voices of Hope film
A Single Drop for Safe Water
Evan Fraser

Articles, Videos, etc
‘We Rise’ Million Voice Choir
Tribal Women’s Struggle for Water in India
2010 West African Women & Water Training Program

MUSIC:
‘We Rise’ by Gemma Bulos
‘Solar Rising’ by Evan Fraser
‘Mother Mbira’ by Evan Fraser
‘Zawo’ by Evan Fraser

La Via Campesina's caravan holds a candle ceremony just outside of Chichenitze to celebrate arrival at the 2010 climate conference. Photo by Allan Lissner.

Global warming is no longer a fear for the future, it’s threatening human civilization now. But a good portion of humanity doesn’t seem that concerned. On this edition, part 2 of a special 2 part series, Brian Edwards-Tiekert takes us through the climate change that is happening, the political response that isn’t, and the people trying to break the gridlock.

This series was made possible by a grant from The Lia Fund, with additional support from The Cultural Conservancy.

Featuring:

Joe Romm, climateprogress.org editor; Anthony Leiserowitz, Yale University school of forestry and environmental studies climate change communication program director; Rob Willer , University of California at Berkeley Sociologist; Barack Obama, President of the United States; Florencio Quintero, Guayabal, Panama community leader; Christina Bonita, Ruben Mirana; Guayabal residents; Henry Derwent, International Emissions Trading Association CEO; David Hawkins Natural Resources Defense Council director of climate programs; Oswaldo Jordan Alliance for Conservation and Development Director; Pedro Albrego, Ngobe Center for Development and Technical Assistance worker; Michael Dorsey. Dartmouth College Climate Justice Research project director; Evo Morales, President of Bolivia; Angelica Navarro, lead Bolivian climate negotiator

For more information:

Alliance for Conservation and Development

Center for Civil Society, University of Kwazulu-Natal

Climate Connections

Climate Justice Research Project at Dartmouth College

Climate Progress

Climate Signals – An Inventory of Climate Change Impact Reports

COP 17 in Durban, South Africa

Global Justice Ecology Project

Indigenous Environmental Network

Institute for Policy Studies–Energy and Economy

International Emissions Trading Association

Movement Generation

Mobilization for Climate Justice

Natural Resources Defense Council

Friends of the Earth International

Greenpeace International

Senator James Inhofe

Skeptical Science

The South Centre

Tuvalu and Global Warming

World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth

Yale Project on Climate Change Communication

Articles, Videos, etc.
Maldives Seeks to Buy a New Homeland

Music:

Ninna Nanna by Volfoniq
Do What You Can by Lee Rosevere
Wavy Glass by Podington Bear
May-December by Mos Def

Bolivia's UN ambassador, Pablo Solon speaks to a crowd about the need for real climate change solutions. Photo: Langelle/GJEP-GFC.

Global warming is no longer a fear for the future, it’s threatening human civilization now. But a good portion of humanity doesn’t seem that concerned. On this edition, part 1 of a special 2 part series, Brian Edwards-Tiekert takes us through the climate change that is happening, the political response that isn’t, and the people trying to break the gridlock.

This series was made possible by a grant from The Lia Fund, with additional support from The Cultural Conservancy.

Featuring:

Tim Flannery, author of “The Weathermakers”; Professor Joseph Alcamo, United Nations Environment Program chief scientist; James Inhofe, US Senator from Oklahoma; Bernaditas Muller, South Centre climate change special advisor; Patrick Bond, Center for Civil Society director at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa; Enele Soapala, Tuvalu minister for foreign affairs, environment, and labor; Barack Obama, President of the United States; Stanislaus Lumumba Di-Aping, South Sudanese diplomat; Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International executive director; Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives; Terisa Turner, University of Guelph economist, Nnimo Bassey, Friends of the Earth International chair

For more information:

Climate Signals – An Inventory of Climate Change Impact Reports
Skeptical Science
Climate Progress
Mobilization for Climate Justice
Center for Civil Society, University of Kwazulu-Natal
Indigenous Environmental Network
Senator James Inhofe
The South Centre
Tuvalu and Global Warming
Greenpeace International
Friends of the Earth International
COP 17 in Durban, South Africa

Articles, Videos, etc
Maldives Seeks to Buy a New Homeland

Music:

Ninna Nanna by Volfoniq
Do What You Can by Lee Rosevere
Wavy Glass by Podington Bear
May-December by Mos Def

Young organizers leading chants during the UN Climate Negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. Credit: Orin Langelle/GJEP-GFC

From Kyoto to Copenhagen to Cancun, the United Nation’s climate negotiations have become increasingly ineffective. Despite increasing awareness about the perils of climate change, those in power don’t seem willing to budge.

On this edition, we’ll hear voices from the streets of Cancun and look at where the world might turn for answers.

Featuring:

Ananda Lee Tan, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives U.S. and Canada coordinator; Jasmine Thomas, Carrier Nation member; Jaime Henn, 350.org communications director; Michelle Chan, Friends of the Earth Economic Project Policy Director; Daniel T’seleie. K’asho Got’ine First Nation member; Melina Laboucan Massimo, Laboucan Cree First nation member; Nicola Bullard, Focus on the Global South Deputy Director; Pablo Solon, Bolivian Ambassador to the UN; Robert Zoelick, World Bank President; Nnimmo Bassey, Environmental Rights Action Executive Director; Kari Fulton, Youth for Climate Justice activist.

Contributing Producers: Andalusia Knoll and Jeff Conant

—-WEB EXCLUSIVES—-

From a panel discussion on Reigniting The Climate Justice Movement at the Brower Center in Berkeley California, January 18, 2011.

Michelle Chan, Friends of the Earth Economic Project Policy Director, on the UN Climate negotiations.  What’s at stake in this process?

Rose Braz, Center for Biological Diversity Climate Campaign Director, on how the EPA could use the Clean Air Act to legislate carbon reduction, instead of waiting for Congress on the UN to act.

Ananda Lee Tan, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives U.S. and Canada coordinator, on how a DC centric approach to the climate change has failed, and how organizing wasteworkers and other front line groups has led to significant climate justice victories.

Bill Barclay, Rainforest Action Network Policy Director on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation).

Jamie Henn, East Asia and Communications Director for 350.org, on how the movement for climate justice can be more creative in promoting their cause.

Question and Answer session featuring Jamie Henn, Bill Barclay, Ananda Lee Tan, Rose Braz & Michelle Chan; moderated by Tina Gerhardt, COP 16 correspondent for the Nation and Alternet.

For More Information:

350.org

Amazon Watch

Background on the Ilisu dam in Turkey

Bolivia on Climate Change

Center for Biological Diversity

Environmental Rights Action

Friends of the Earth

Focus on the Global South

Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternative (GAIA)

La Vía Campesina

The No Dirty Energy Campaign

Rainforest Action Network

Articles on the Environment by Tina Gerhardt

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UN REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation)

World Bank

Protesting Chevron refinery expansion in Richmond. Credit: planet a. via Flickr

The Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California is one of the oldest and largest in the United States. Locals have welcomed the company’s boost to employment – some three thousand jobs – and sizable tax contributions. But Chevron is also the number one greenhouse gas emitter in California; and has contributed to the degradation of water, soil and air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over the past decade, the city and residents of Richmond, have forced the company to curb its impact.

Making Contact producer Kyung Jin Lee has more about the ongoing efforts to make the company serve the community.

Coal plant in Czech Republic (Credit: Red, Green & Blue)

In late November, the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Cancun, Mexico. Most of the solutions being offered will center on carbon trading or cap and trade schemes – in other words, market-based solutions to the problem.  But is there a way to approach the climate crisis other than through the language of economics?

On this edition, a roundtable discussion about alternative ways to both understand, and solve the climate crisis.

Featuring:

Rose Braz, Center for Biological Diversity Climate Campaign Director; Ananda Lee Tan, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives US and Canada campaign coordinator; Iain Boal, social historian & Birkbeck College at the University of London fellow.

For More Information:

Afflicted Powers (book)

Center for Biological Diversity

Climate Justice Now

The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives/The Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance

Lawrence Summers 1991 memo on trade liberalization (Wikipedia)

Mobilization for Climate Justice

Rising Tide North America

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UN-REDD (UN) Collaborative Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries

350.org

Music:

‘Stakes is High’ – by De La Soul

‘Global Warning’ – by Seasunz, J-Bless and Stic.man

Cleaning the BP Oil Spill. Photo credit: CHRIS WILKINS/AFP/Getty Images

BP’s Macondo well seems to be capped, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief… or can we? Many blame BP or the US government for the lack of oversight of the well and the efficiency of the response to the leak. But there’s a larger issue at hand–our society’s continued use of oil. Even George W. Bush said we were addicted, and that was in 2006. On this edition, we go to the Gulf Coast to hear why, despite the dangerous and deadly consequences, locals aren’t ready to turn their back on the oil industry. What does that mean for the rest of us, as we pursue a future free of fossil fuels?

Featuring:

Antonia Juhasz, Global Exchange’s Chevron Program director and author of The Tyranny of Oil: the World’s Most Powerful Industry and What We Must Do To Stop It; Carla Perez, Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project Program coordinator; Lulu DarDar and Scotti, BP cleanup workers; Albert Naquin, Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimachas Tribal Chief; Terry Labouche, R.J. Molinair & Clairece Fralou, Gulf Coast residents; Robert Gorman, Catholic Charities Houma-Thibodaux Executive Director; Aaron Viles, Gulf Restoration Network Campaign Director.

—

‘It’s Not About BP,’ says Antonia Juhasz

Global Exchange’s Chevron Program Director, speaks at a teach-in on the BP Spill and Big Oil, in Berkeley California—July 20, 2010.  She talks about the lack of spill preparation on the part of the entire oil industry, and her own experiences on the gulf coast since the BP well explosion.

—

Due to Economic Concerns, Gulf Coast Residents Still Support Big Oil

With their land, traditions, and livelihoods all thrown into chaos and their future in doubt, you might think that the people of Southern Louisiana would be calling for major changes to the way the oil companies do business, or leading the charge for an overall ban on underwater drilling. But as correspondent Julia Botero reports, the economic realities are much more complicated, and many of those most closely affected by the devastation of the gulf spill are, in fact, not calling for any change at all.

—

Carla Perez on Learning from the Spill

A representative of the Mobilization for Climate Justice speaks about the connection between the BP spill and climate change, and has some suggestions about where we should be looking for solutions to our addiction to oil. At a teach-in on the BP Spill and Big Oil, in Berkeley California—July 20, 2010

—

For more information:

For Videos of the Speeches heard in the show, go to:
Climate Connections Blog

Gulf Restoration Network
New Orleans, LA

Global Exchange Chevron Program
San Francisco, CA

Mobilization for Climate Justice

Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project
Oakland, CA

Carla Perez

Antonia Juhasz

Act Against Oil-Abolish Offshore Drilling

Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees

Catholic Charities Houma-Thibodaux
Houma, LA

Videos, Blogs, Articles, Links:

The Women Who Won’t Abandon the Gulf by Antonia Juhasz

Gulf Residents Scared Oil Industry Will Leave:
Will We Ever Break Our Abusive Relationship With Oil?

Louisiana Bucket Brigade

Rising Tide North America:
Confronting the Root Causes of Climate Change

Seize BP

Sierra Club Delta Chapter

Sierra Club Oil Spill Map

Louisiana Environmental Action Network

Mobile Bay Keepers

Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.)

Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project

Music:

‘It Aint My Fault’
by Mos Def, Lenny Kravitz, the Preservation Hall Band, Trombone Shorty, and Tim Robbins
‘The Great Santa Barbara Oil Slick’
by John Fahey