08 - Melinda Tuhus, Beyond Extreme Energy

11/07/16 • 39 min

Melinda Tuhus has been an environmental activist for decades – but throughout the past five years has become focused on the fight to slow climate change. As a reporter she's covered climate stories like mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia and the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.
In this interview she shares her perspective on climate organizing and working with Beyond Extreme Energy.
For Melinda, meeting people and visiting communities impacted by extreme energy led to a deeper understanding of the need for climate justice. Even though human-caused climate change is serious, and at times overwhelming, Melinda believes we can do something about it.
She explains how grassroots campaigns have been able to slow down the development of oil and gas infrastructure and even cancel major projects. Not only can we win campaigns, but working together and building a movement can be rewarding on a personal level.

As Mentioned in This Episode:

Mountain Justice
- Julia "Judy" Bonds
- Larry Gibson
melindatuhus.net
- Melinda's reporting & blog
Defeating the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline
- SNYFGP: We won! Kinder Morgan suspends “Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline Project”
Beyond Extreme Energy
BXE on Facebook
Twitter : @melindanewhaven

Music:

Music for this episode by Eilen Jewell – song is "One of These Days" from her album Sea of Tears.

Credits:

This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a powerful resource for anyone confronting the fracking industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net
The soundtrack Halt the Harm podcast is"One of These Days" by Eilen Jewell from her album Sea of Tears.
Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover-Owens in the studios of Eco-Defense Radio and WRFI.

As Mentioned in This Episode:

Mountain Justice
- Julia "Judy" Bonds
- Larry Gibson
melindatuhus.net
- Melinda's reporting & blog
Defeating the Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline
- SNYFGP: We won! Kinder Morgan suspends “Northeast Energy Direct Pipeline Project”
Beyond Extreme Energy
BXE on Facebook
Twitter : @melindanewhaven

Music:

Music for this episode by Eilen Jewell – song is "One of These Days" from her album Sea of Tears.

Credits:

Previous Episode

07 - Sara Rasmussen and Heather Harr – Fracking and Public Health

On this episode we've got two guests, Heather Harr and Sara Rasmussen – we're talking about the impacts of fracking on public health.
Heather Harr is the project director for the League of Women Voters in Pennsylvania's Straight Scoop on Shale Drilling. She talks about the upcoming Shale and Public Health Conference, and also shares some valuable resources about public health impacts of fracking. The conference is for health professionals and community members interested in how the fracking industry impacts public health.
Sara Rasmussen MHS, who you'll hear in the second half of this episode, published new research that shows a clear connection between fracking and asthma.
She is a PhD candidate in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. She has been involved in three studies on unconventional natural gas development and health outcomes. In this interview Sara explains how they collected data to show the impacts of fracking on public health.
I also learned a new word – epidemiology, which is (noun) "the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health". This is why I'm asking the questions here ;-)

As Mentioned in This Episode:

Next Episode

08 - Ranjana Bhandari, Holding Strong for a Liveable Arlington

Ranjana Bhandari is a mother and economics lecture. She bought a house in Arlington Texas in 1993. It’s Texas, so it didn’t shock them when the realtor mentioned mineral rights – but hundreds of fracking wells right in their neighborhood, on school campuses, street corners, and city blocks? It was hard to believe.
Most of her neighbors signed the gas leases during the recession in 2008. It was hard to turn down the money. But Ranjana and her husband refused.
Chesapeake called them incessantly, trying just about every angle to get them to sign. Eventually they just said, “too bad, we’re drilling anyway.”
Listen, or read the story at www.halttheharm.net/raisingresistance

As Mentioned in This Episode:

Raising Resistance, Halt the Harm Network
Liveable Arlington on Facebook

Credits:

This podcast is a project of halttheharm.net, a powerful resource for anyone confronting the fracking industry. Halt the Harm is a network of leaders who are taking action, sharing resources and information, and supporting each other’s campaigns. Find out more at halttheharm.net
Recorded, produced, and published by Ryan Clover-Owens in the studios of Eco-Defense Radio and WRFI.