Interview on Australian radio 01 December 04

Thanks for sharing your interview with us. Your interviewer was very professional and she asked very good questions.

It is especially nice to hear your voice which for me is the first time I ever heard you speak. I did notice the compassion in your voice which was no surprise to me because I felt this compassion as I read what you had to say in High Tide.

For decades, I have been concerned about our depleting fossil fuel supply. Less than two years ago, I was not sure if the problem of global warming warranted serious attention if we were going to eventually have to change over to other sources of energy anyway.

But, I really did not know enough about global warming to be sure. How we proceed to improve our energy resources is directly dependent on how critical global warming really is. So, I sought to learn more!

So, right before I knew you Mark, I was focused on understanding climate science better. My concern was deep and was getting stronger. But until I read your article in the Washington Post, I was still not emotionally engaged. I was still in the science which is extremely important but can also be presented in an abstract way.

Intellect is helpful but it is the emotions which drive us. Your contribution is one that engages a person emotionally. We first had a dialogue through email and then I bought High Tide and now I am working everyday focused on climate change prevention.

It all started for me with the article you wrote in our Washington Post. When I saw your article connecting climate change to the Florida hurricanes, I was naturally interested.

So, what is the lesson here? More photos! More radio interviews! More newspaper articles! More sharing of what you know with America!

I have been preaching this many times when I make a post because I can say that I would not be writing at all if it were not for your article in our Washington Post!

I know that you received many emails that attacked you from my country from your article in our newspaper. I know this because you shared it with us on your website.

Trust me, I feel your pain! However, I encourage you to engage with America anyway and never be intimidated by any negative responses from some of our people. Allowing that at any level is to allow the ignorant to control the destiny of the planet!

So, more interviews, and more articles, and more engagement with America to the best of your ability to do so! Please travel over here and do not worry about any carbon from your plane trip. Your efforts over here will always make a difference!

Always the Best, Dan

I wish we would get media interviews over here in America like that.

An additional point re nuclear power – Aside from the problems with nuclear waste, uranium mining is very harmful, especially for minority miners (who are sent into the mines without protective gear). According to a study several decades ago, Navajo uranium miners had somthing like 8 times (or was it 50 times??) the lung cancer death rate of the general population. Also the subsistence lands in Niger are being destroyed by uranium mining – and the subsistence pastoralists and farmers don’t even have electricity – so they get zero benefit from the uranium mining. I think also that nuclear power plant workers (who are selected for not having cancer in their families) have about twice the cancer rate as the general population.

I was thinking there should be some way of calculating (guessimating maybe within a range) the life-years lost per KWH or gallon of gasoline used (taking into account all of the harms – local pollution, acid rain, global warming, uranium mining & other nuclear power harms). Once we start getting better labels on things with more info, that would be something I would like to know in order to do comparative shopping, so I could buy the products that kill less people. I figure everything does some harm & we all bear the mark of Cain, so at the least we could reduce our harm to the bare minimum, without harming ourselves.

Sent the dang thing before I even started typing the message! Sorry! Anyway, I wish I could listen in, Mark, but I haven’t the equipment to do so on these university computers. I really AM planning on getting my own computer—really soon!

Any chance the transcript’s gonna be printed up anywhere? I’d love to read it….