Green Time TV:
Environment for the Next Generation
by Don Fitz
August Green Time episodes explore the environment that will be left to the next generation. Will more or less poisons such as lead be produced? Will energy be preserved or squandered? Will Ozark beauty be preserved or destroyed? Will food be more or less contaminated?
Lead poisoning damages the kidneys and central nervous, cardiovascular and reproductive systems. It lowers children’s scores on math and verbal skills and increases levels of violence. During the first August Green Time, host Don Fitz, Jed Hawkes Koball, of Presbyterian Church (USA), and Bob Criss, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University ask how trade agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership, greatly weaken countries’ right to protect themselves. Lead uses have changed over the last 1000 years but problems with mining and processing remain.
The second August Green Time looks at how homeowners can increase the energy efficiency of their homes and why they should invest in an energy audit. Gary Steps, of Butterfly Energy Works, and Terry Walsh, of Insulators Local 1, join Host John Hickey to discuss how energy efficiency affects individual residences as well as large corporations. They also look at how mechanical insulation can impact the environment and create local jobs.
Nearly 80% of antibiotics sold in the United States are used on factory farms rather than for human medicine. At the same time, two million Americans get an antibiotic resistant infection annually, and in 2013, 23,000 of those infected died. During the third August Green Time, Alyssa Hartman, of Food and Water Watch, and host Don Fitz discuss the FDA’s being aware of problems associated with the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria since the 1970s but continually failing to act.
The fourth August Green Time explores how karst areas are formed when limestone-based sedimentary rock is dissolved underground. This creates caves, springs, sinkholes and losing streams, which are creeks where the water goes underground. Host Don Fitz and Karst Project Director Denise Vaughn discuss how, in karst areas, rainwater flows quickly underground with little filtering, so it can easily be polluted. Karst geology also creates many popular Ozark destinations: springs, rivers and caves.
More than 800 people got sick when the West Plains sewage lagoon drained into the groundwater. This was due to the karst geological formation which dominates southern Missouri. Denise Vaughn returns to the final August Green Time to discuss the need to avoid polluting groundwater in karst areas. Keeping the area around a foundation well drained is a good way to prevent soil from eroding underground and eventually creating a dropout sink-hole.
August shows include the movies “Lead Added to Gasoline,” “Tetraethyl Lead 1950s,” “Gasoline For Everybody,” “Thank you, Sierra Club Supporters for an amazing 2014,” “The 5,000+ Strong Tar Sands Resistance March” and “Karst in the Ozarks” and slides on “Building on Ozark Karst.”
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:
- August 1 & 3: “Lead: The Unseen Burden”
- August 8 & 10: “Energy Efficiency and Our Future”
- August 15 & 17: “Antibiotic Overdose”
- August 22 & 24: “Karst in the Ozarks”
- August 29 & 31: “Building on Ozark Karst”
“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 [email protected]
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