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Wisconsin Public Radio

GOING GREEN

Program 07-05-27-B

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Posters at Starbucks ask customers to focus on the world water crisis. Church congregations ask the faithful to go on a "carbon diet." Slate magazine asks readers to take a "green challenge."We've got green cars, green clothing, green politics and even green weddings. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look at the green revolution that's sweeping America - and the world. Can a global grassroots movement to save the planet succeed where politicians have failed?

SEGMENT 1:

Colin Beavan is a mild mannered writer and a self-described "guilty liberal." He maintains a blog of his and his wife's experiments in what they call "no impact living," and talks about it with Anne Strainchamps. Also, Bill McKibben has been warning us about global warming since his 1989 book "The End of Nature." In his new Book, "Deep Economy," he makes the case that "more" does not lead to a happier life. McKibben tells Steve Paulson that people seem to be happier with what's good for the planet.

SEGMENT 2:

Jeff Ferrell gave up life as a tenured professor and became a dumpster diver. His new book is "Empire of Scrounge." Ferrell tells Steve Paulson about the underground world of street scavenging in a consumer society. Also, environmentalist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken started counting up the people and organizations who are quietly trying to save the world and found over a million of them. His book about them is "Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming." Hawken tells Anne Strainchamps who comprises this movement and what they're doing.

SEGMENT 3:

Linda Lear is the author of "Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature." She tells Jim Fleming that the creator of Peter Rabbit could have been a scientist, that she understood the power of merchandising, and that she ended up a wealthy farmer who donated the land that became the National Lake District Park in England. And we hear Meryl Streep read from "Peter Rabbit." Also, a sure sign of spring in the mid-west is the sound of sand hill cranes returning home. We hear Aldo Leopold's thoughts, and those of commentator Rima Snyder, and some crane sound.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 07-05-27-B.

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Books:

Jeff Ferrell, Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging (New York University Press)
Linda J. Lear, Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature (St. Martin's Press)
Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (Henry Holt)
Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming (Penguin)

Website:

No Impact Man Colin Beavan
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

Music:

Distribution dates: week of 04/20/2008 - hour 1 week of 05/27/2007 - hour 2

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