'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

If you’ve ever stepped into a nail salon, you know the smell of a chemical cocktail that hits you like an invisible wall. While consumers may tolerate it during a short visit, the nail salon workers find themselves stewing in a toxic bubble for years. On this edition, we take a look at the health impacts of chemical exposure, the shoddy regulation of cosmetics, and the movement towards greener nail salons.

Featuring:

Alisha Nga Tran, Patient Leadership Council facilitator, Asian Health Services; Dr. Thu Quach, epidemiologist, Cancer Prevention Institute of California; My Tong, associate, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative; Lam Le, former nail salon worker and cancer survivor; Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins , CEO, Green For All; Jamie Silberberger, director of programs and policy at Women’s Voices for the Earth; Uyen Nguyen, owner, Isabella Nail Salon; Sarah Vuong , employee at Isabella Nail Salon; Jill Adams , client, Isabella Nail Salon; David Chiu,  president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Thanks to all of our supporters, to As You Sow‘s Environmental Enforcement Fund and to Spot.us for helping to crowd fund this story.

*** WEB EXCLUSIVES ***

Asian Health Services Educates Patient Leaders from pauline bartolone on Vimeo.

Nail Salon Workers Speak Up About Chemical Exposure

The amount of nail salons has nearly quadrupled nationwide in the past decade. In California, about two-thirds of nail salon workers are Vietnamese immigrants. In this next segment, Making Contact Producer Pauline Bartolone explores the health impact of chemical exposure on nail salon workers, and what groups are doing to protect them.

Nail Salon Businesses Go Green in Bay Area

Nail salon workers and advocates are pushing hard to change public policy around exposure to toxic chemicals.  But there’s also a movement coming from businesses themselves to make the salons greener and safer for workers and consumers. Correspondent Momo Chang has more.

For More Information:

Asian Health Services, Oakland, CA
California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, Oakland, CA
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Washington, D.C.
National Healthy Nail Salon Alliance, Washington, D.C.
Women’s Voices for the Earth, Missoula, MT

Music:

“P.S.” by Chromakey
“Warm Sound” by Zero 7

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

Scenes from the movie 'Gasland.' Source: www.gaslandthemovie.com

This week, we revisit a recent show about a natural gas drilling method called “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking.”

While the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has increased calls to use natural gas as a so-called ‘clean energy’ alternative, activists are sounding the alarm bell about this controversial gas drilling technique.

We’ll hear excerpts from the academy award-nominated documentary, “Gasland.”

We’ll also hear from people from Pennsylvania to the mountains of Colorado who are trying to prevent the toxic fallout from ‘fracking’ before it starts.

Special thanks to Josh Fox, the producer of ‘Gasland,’ and to Alton Byrd and Rachel Zurer for helping to produce this show.

Featuring:

Walter Hang, Toxics Targeting President; Josh Fox, ‘Gasland’ movie producer; Weston Wilson, EPA employee not speaking on behalf of the EPA; Oil and gas industry executives; Pat Farnelli, Norma Fiorintino, Ron & Jean Carter, Dimock, PA residents; Dr. Theo Colborn, Endocrine Disruption Exchange President; Paul Light, Grand Valley Citizen’s Alliance President; Rachel Waldholz, High Country News Correspondent; Maurice Hinchey, New York State Representative, 22nd District; Wes Gillingham, Catskill Mountainkeeper Program Director.

For more information:

Gasland: the Movie

Toxics Targeting

Catskill Mountainkeeper

Battlement Concerned Citizens:
A Committee of Grand Valley Citizens Alliance

Debunking Gasland

Videos, Blogs, Articles, Links:

Agit-Prop video: Stand Up NY!

Report: Marcellus reserves worth $2 trillion

Colorado launches one of the nation’s first health assessments of gas-drilling impacts

Exposing the Natural Gas Industry’s Attempt to Silence Its Critics–Alternet

EPA frac study: What the beginning may say about the end

Follow the FRAC Act

ProPublica’s extensive coverage of fracking issues:
www.propublica.org/special/hydraulic-fracturing
www.propublica.org/feature/a-reporters-journey-through-the-gas-fields

Untested Waters: The Rise of Hydraulic Fracturing in Oil and Gas Production and the Need to Revisit Regulation by Hannah Wiseman, Fordham Environmental Law review

Scoping Materials for Initial Design of EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Research Study

EPA takes new look at gas drilling, water issues

Video clip of lighting Divide Creek on fire

Rachel Waldholz talks with High Country News editors about Battlement Mesa and fracking

Fracking protest in Albany, NY

‘To Drill or Not to Drill natural Gas Rush Forces Farmers to Choose between Income and Land’–Alternet

Video on Sublette County, Michigan hydrofracking

Kill the Drill: A Call for a Statewide Ban on Gas Fracking in NY

Safe Water Movement to Ban Toxic Gas Drilling in NY

Frac Attack: The Movie

2009 Report by New York City Borough President Scott M. Stringer on hydrofracking

Congress Considers Fracking Regulation Amid Hodgepodge of State Drilling Rules

Weekly Mulch: As risks for oil and gas grow, USSF offers change
Posted Jun 25, 2010 by Sarah Laskow

Retirement is for the rest and relaxation that eludes us during our working years. But some people use their golden years to work for change in their communities.

On this edition, we profile three elders who became activists in the second half of their lives. We visit Appalachia, New England, and the streets of Oakland, California.

From left: Margaret Gordon of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Hubie Jones of Boston Children's Chorus and Bo Webb, of Mountain Justice. Credit: Civic Ventures.

Featuring:

Bo Webb, Mountain Justice Co-Founder; Hubie Jones, Boston Children’s Chorus Founder; Margaret Gordon, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project Co-Founder and Co-Director.

Contributing producer: Shaunnah Ray

For More Information:

Boston Children’s Chorus
Boston, MA

Coal River Mountain Watch
Naoma, WV

Encore Careers

Mountain Justice
Whitesville, WV

Pacific Institute
Oakland, CA

Purpose Prize

West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project
Oakland, CA

Music:

Appalachian Waltz – Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Conner
International Orchitis – 21^st Century Dub
Uberlebensgross – Boston Children’s Chorus
Dreams – Boston Children’s Chorus
Song of the Zaytoon Trees – Boston Children’s Chorus
Up to the Mountain – Boston Children’s Chorus

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

Uyen Nguyen, owner of Isabella Nail Bar in Oakland, California, is committed to using less toxic nail salon products. Credit: Pauline Bartolone

Nail salon workers and advocates are pushing hard to change public policy around exposure to toxic chemicals.  But there’s also a movement coming from businesses themselves to make the salons greener and safer for workers and consumers.

Correspondent Momo Chang has more.

The amount of nail salons has nearly quadrupled nationwide in the past decade. In California, about two-thirds of nail salon workers are Vietnamese immigrants. In this next segment, Making Contact Producer Pauline Bartolone explores the health impact of chemical exposure on nail salon workers, and what groups are doing to protect them.

WATCH VIDEO:

Asian Health Services Educates Patient Leaders from pauline bartolone on Vimeo.

If you’ve ever stepped into a nail salon, you know the smell of a chemical cocktail that hits you like an invisible wall. While consumers may tolerate it during a short visit, the nail salon workers find themselves stewing in a toxic bubble for years. On this edition, we take a look at the health impacts of chemical exposure, the shoddy regulation of cosmetics, and the movement towards greener nail salons.

Asian Health Services Educates Patient Leaders from pauline bartolone on Vimeo.

Nail Salon Workers Speak Up About Chemical Exposure

The amount of nail salons has nearly quadrupled nationwide in the past decade. In California, about two-thirds of nail salon workers are Vietnamese immigrants. In this next segment, Making Contact Producer Pauline Bartolone explores the health impact of chemical exposure on nail salon workers, and what groups are doing to protect them.

Nail Salon Businesses Go Green in Bay Area

Nail salon workers and advocates are pushing hard to change public policy around exposure to toxic chemicals.  But there’s also a movement coming from businesses themselves to make the salons greener and safer for workers and consumers. Correspondent Momo Chang has more.

–

Featuring:

Alisha Nga Tran, Patient Leadership Council facilitator, Asian Health Services; Dr. Thu Quach, Epidemiologist, Cancer Prevention Institute of California; My Tong, Associate, California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative; Lam Le, former nail salon worker and cancer survivor; Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins , CEO, Green For All; Jamie Silberberger, Director of Programs and Policy at Women’s Voices for the Earth; Uyen Nguyen, Owner, Isabella Nail Salon; Sarah Vuong , employee at Isabella Nail Salon; Jill Adams , client, Isabella Nail Salon; David Chiu , President of San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Thanks to all of our supporters, to As You Sow‘s Environmental Enforcement Fund and to Spot.us for helping to crowd fund this story.

For more information:

Asian Health Services
Oakland, CA

California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative
Oakland, CA

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
Washington, D.C.

National Healthy Nail Salon Alliance
Washington, D.C.

The Story of Cosmetics

Women’s Voices for the Earth
Missoula, MT

Music:

P.S. by Chromakey
Warm Sound by Zero 7