As the Arctic melts …

Dear Friends,

Ed Fallon, Pascha Morgan and Charles Goldman discuss this weekend’s action.

Charles Goldman co-hosts this week’s program with me. On the first segment, Pascha Morgan joins us to discuss Bold Iowa‘s provocative performance art, which involved a gallows (representing the threat of extinction) and large blocks of ice (representing accelerated ice melt in the polar regions).

Bold Iowa’s action demanded that Democratic presidential candidates make human survival their first act as president. The banner above the gallows declared, “As the Arctic melts, the climate noose tightens.”

The action received some enthusiastic support. Yet despite what organizers thought was clear messaging, it also experienced some strong pushback. In addition to this week’s live on-air discussion, I’ll publish a more in-depth blog later this week, responding to criticism of the action and apologizing to people offended by the imagery.

Also on this week’s program, Charles and I look at a few of Earth’s current climate hot spots, specifically New Orleans and the Arctic. We also try to sort out the absurd tweet from President Trump (yeah, another one) that four Democratic Congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Of course, the fact that all four — Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley — are Americans, three who were born in the US, is lost on a president who operates from his own set of “facts.”

Finally, we try to sort out why conspiracy and paranoia run so deep in American politics. Wish us luck on that one. And thanks for tuning in.

Ed Fallon