Green Time TV, Sept 2016: Our Future Environment
by Don Fitz
We can look backward to the way politicians and businessmen have ignored the need to plan for land usage and the harm of levees. Or, we can look forward to socialized medicine and creating clean energy. September Green Time episodes explore the need to do both.
Less and less land is available for human use. Most land is not occupied by people but is used for growing food, extraction of minerals and depositing industrial and household trash. In the first September Green Time, host Don Fitz and Bob Criss, of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, discuss excellent bottomland in Missouri being paved over for a mall. They explore how mountaintop removal contaminates water and makes the land look horrible for millenia, while creating precious few jobs. As the capital investment on machines for deforestation and mining goes up, land is destroyed at an increasing rate. Misuse of farmland is accompanied by “fertigation,” the practice of pumping pesticides and fertilizer into groundwater which poisons it for human consumption.
Differences between health care in Denmark and the US could hardly be more stark. During the second September Green Time host Don Fitz and guests Mimi Signor of Missourians for Single Payer and Dr. Johan Andersen, Department of Occupational Medicine, Aarhus University, Herning, Denmark (Visiting Professor at Washington University), discuss the connection between health care and the larger social welfare system in Denmark. The cost of Danish health care is much less than in the US and its citizens live longer. Public health “safety nets” are not working in the US and it may be time for Americans to demand the right to free health care.
The St. Louis area was hit with record-setting floods on the Mississippi and Meramec Rivers from the end of 2015 to early 2016. Were the high waters caused more by rains or levees built up and down the rivers? In the third September Green Time, host Don Fitz and Bob Criss discuss what levees are and how long they have been constructed. They look at how they help, how they fail, and severe economic and environmental consequences of river mismanagement. Recommendations to strongly restrict the construction of levees have been made for well over a century, yet are still ignored.
How will Set the PACE St. Louis save money with its energy efficient retrofit at the Missouri Athletic Club (MAC)? During the final September Green Time, host John Hickey discusses the MAC project and union involvement with Byron DeLear, CEO & Chairman of Energy Equity Funding LLC and Tim Murray of IBEW Local 1. How can buildings like MAC be upgraded in a cost effective way? What training do union workers receive? What businesses could benefit from utility bills savings?
September shows include the movies International Deforestation Patterns in Tropical Rainforests, Our Forests Aren't Fuel: Injustice in Northampton, Fix It, Video Air Ops Len Small Levee, Miller City Levee Break, Drive Green for Life, and National Drive Electric Week.
Green Time appears at noon on Saturdays in St. Louis on Channel 24-1 and at 8 pm on Mondays in St. Louis on Channel 24-2, Springfield on Channel 39, Joplin on Channel 36 and Marshfield on Channel 17. Green Time programs air on these dates:
September 3 & 5: “Ignoring the Future: Misuse of Land,”
September 10 & 12: “Socialized Medicine in Denmark,”
September 17 & 19: “Did Levees Cause the Flood of 2015-16?,” and
September 24 & 26: “Clean Energy: Business & Labor.”
“Like” Gateway Greens on Facebook and click “Get notifications.” Also see Green Time on greentime.tv. To help produce Green Time TV call 314-727-8554 or email don@greentime.tv
